


Surrounding All My Surroundings

by congregationsvagrant



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Fraternities & Sororities, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pranks, nobody ever tells Mikey anything, tyler has no interest in these pranks guys, tyler is also totally NOT crushing on josh dun okay, tyler totally hates pete, where did pete get the walkie talkie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-23 04:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3754942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/congregationsvagrant/pseuds/congregationsvagrant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which a prank goes wrong, Tyler knows too many frat boys and he just wants to stop getting involved in this stupid war damn it.</p><p>(A.K.A Josh is the Vice President of a rival fraternity and Tyler is totally NOT crushing on him.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Operation Regret

Tyler regrets ever agreeing to help Pete in the first place. He’s not sure why he did, only there was a promise of Taco Bell and movies later on and Tyler is always down for Taco Bell.

Despite his love for Taco Bell Tyler is now reconsidering this whole plan.

Why?

Because it is an awful, terrible, absolutely stupid idea and he should’ve thought it through before saying yes. This is not going to work, there are grass stains on his favourite white shirt (his mom bought him that thank you very much) and he is crouched in a bush wishing he was anywhere but.

“There he is!” Pete hisses, pulling Tyler closer to the floor. “Get down!”

“I am down,” Tyler whispers back in annoyance. It’s not his fault he’s tall, okay?

Well okay he’s taller than Pete, but that’s not really hard.

The sound of laughter floats over from the house across the street and Tyler peers through the branches as stealthily as he can. It’s kind of hard to be stealthy when you’re in a bush and Pete Wentz is giggling excitedly beside you, but Tyler’s learning to deal with this stupidity on a daily basis these days.

A small group of frat boys exit the open door of the house. This is it; this is the moment they’ve been waiting for. Tyler feels the nerves twist inside of him. The small group happens to consist of Patrick Stump, Brendon Urie and a few others Tyler didn’t know. Patrick and Brendon both share the same English class with Tyler, they’re both very nice and Tyler is willing to even call them friends, but they are also in Kappa Delta Pi – the fraternity in the midst of a seemingly never-ending prank war with Pete’s own frat Zeta Nu. Tyler would prefer not to take part in this, God knows he didn’t join a frat last year for a _reason_ , but Pete is the new Zeta President and Tyler’s been wrangled into being a supportive friend by helping him out.

Do it for the tacos, Tyler.

“Psi, break 1-9,” Pete speaks quietly into the bright pink walkie-talkie that he’s holding. Tyler does not want to know where he got it (but he’s pretty sure it belongs in the trash).

“I don’t know what that means, Pete,” Jenna replies tiredly down the line. Jenna is the president of Delta Psi, the partnered sorority to Zeta Nu, and she is also Tyler’s best friend. They’ve known each other since high school and she is the single reason for Tyler befriending a bunch of frat boys. Tyler’s still unsure of how Pete got her to agree to help, but he has a feeling he brought “college tradition” into it.

Pete sighs. “It means I want to initiate a transmission, didn’t you read that information pack I gave you?” 

“That information pack was three pages of glitter gel pens and doodles of hearts, of course I didn’t read it!”

Tyler laughs loudly. Pete shushes him. 

“Fine,” Pete sighs again. “We’re about to head in, you ready?”

“Yup.”

“What’s your 20?” 

“Pete…”

“…Where are you?” 

“Oh,” Jenna says. “We’re in the car waiting. They just left the house, right?”

“Affirmative,” Pete nods to himself. Tyler inwardly slaps himself for getting involved.

Somewhere down the street Tyler’s Jenna and her friend Hayley are sat in Tyler’s beat up car with slushies that they’re probably dripping everywhere and half dead walkie-talkie ready to warn Pete and Tyler if they see the group coming back.

Not only is Tyler getting grass stains out of this, but also sticky slush remains all over the seats in his car.

“Zetas, break 1-9?”

“10-4,” A deeper voice crackles out from the radio.

“See, Gabe knows the code, Jenna!” Pete says triumphantly.

Jenna sighs audibly through the radio.

“What’s your 20, Zetas?”

“I got three guys watching around the corner and the rest of us are at the back of the park. We can see you.”

Tyler and Pete both turn to see their frat brothers hiding behind various trees and even the swing set. How the Kappas didn’t notice them all when they left their house is a mystery to Tyler.

“Roger that. Okay, Operation Kiss My Water is about to commence,” Pete says.

“We’re never letting you choose the mission name again,” Jenna radios. Pete ignores it and gestures to Tyler to stand up.

 

**Operation Kiss My Water** **is supposed to go something like this:**

 

**Stage 1:** The Zetas wait for the Kappas to leave “the mothership” as Pete keeps calling it. (“It’s a frat house, Pete.” “Shut  _up_ , Jenna!”)

**Stage 2:** They then proceed to enter the house one by one through the windows. (They know the living room window has a faulty lock so it shouldn’t be hard to pick.)

**Stage 3:** They cover the floor in cups full of water ready to spill all over the floor the second somebody opens the front door.

**Stage 4:** Sit back and enjoy the Kappa’s shock through a video feed that Mark – the Zeta’s resident camera whiz – will set up in the living room. 

 

Tyler has an awful feeling this is not going to go quite to plan.

_Why?_

Because Pete planned it, that’s why.

A couple of hours ago when Tyler was not covered in leaves and grass stains Jenna had told him to lighten up and ‘be more optimistic’. Jenna did not witness Pete trying to make a slip’n’slide out of a plastic sheet and beer last year.

Tyler follows Pete up to the house. They’re tiptoeing; he’s not sure why because it’s not like the Kappas are around to see this happening. Actually, Tyler’s not completely sure all the Kappas will be gone. Surely some of them would have stayed behind?

Tyler voices this concern to Pete.

“Trust me,” Pete assures him. “The Kappas never miss bowling night.”

Bowling night is a tradition for all the fraternities and sororities on campus. Every two weeks they dominate the bowling alley and play a mass tournament against one another. Tyler is sometimes forced to attend and act as a weird kind of cheerleader for Jenna’s team that stands there on his phone. He’s okay with this as long as she paints his nails afterwards.

“Don’t you think it’ll be suspicious when half of the Zetas show up for bowling night?” Tyler asks as he hoists Pete on to his shoulders to pick at the window lock.

“Nah,” Pete sticks his tongue out in concentration. “We told them we had a study group going on.”

Tyler snorts. Like anyone would believe that.

 

Pete makes a noise of triumph and Tyler can hear the sound of the window sliding open. He feels Pete’s weight leave his shoulder and then after a moment hoists himself up and after him. They slide through with relative ease and Tyler stands up to admire his surroundings as Pete radios the pledges to come and join them. The living room is surprising well furnished for a frat house; there are even coasters on the coffee.

Watching a group of boys fresh out of high school sliding into a strange house one by one is not something you see every day, and even if Tyler wants no part in this prank a spark of amusement comes to life in his chest as he watches one guy almost fall and create a domino effect outside.

As soon as everyone’s in they go about filling the room with red cups of water, only leaving a path for them to escape. The room isn’t really big enough for everyone, so Pete sends some guys back out to keep guard, and Mark has to avoid tripping into any cups as he sets a camera up on the bannister of the staircase.

Tyler is carefully balancing some cups in front of the door the kitchen when it opens. He freezes.

_Oh God,_ he thinks, _I am going to get punched in the face and it’s all Pete’s fault._

Slowly, he looks up.

In the doorway stands a guy, a _really_ cute guy with big brown eyes and a shock of bright blue hair, wearing a red shirt and a shocked expression. Cute guy drops his pizza when he sees what’s happening.

Tyler regains control of his lungs.

“Everybody run!” He yells, straightening up and attempting to careful and quickly back away. There’s a beat of silence which is quickly followed by a series of shouts and curses as the Zetas attempt to escape through the window.

Across the room Pete’s walkie-talkie buzzes.

“Pete, we have a problem. The Kappas are coming back… and they have some of your guys.” 

Everyone stops. They look at Pete. They look at cute guy.

Someone knocks a cup.

Suddenly there’s a hoard of frat boys rushing for any escape route they can see and there’s a flood of water rushing across the floor as more and more cups get knocked down.

Tyler tries to run, but there’s a hand on his arm and a moment of stomach flipping fear before his hits the floor and feels a weight on top of him. 

Oh no. He’s wet and there’s a hot guy on him.

_He’s wet and there’s a hot guy on him._

“I hate you, Pete Wentz!” Are the last words Tyler manages to get out before he’s cut off by a waves of water rushing into his mouth.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Twenty minutes and what feels like seven betrayals later, Tyler is sat at the Kappa Delta Pi’s kitchen table wearing his wet clothes, wrapped in a towel and regretting life. 

Hot Guy is sat across from him also wrapped in a towel. Tyler has learned Hot Guy’s name is Josh and he is the Vice President of the Kappas. 

Tyler has been allowed the small mercy of not having to help because he hit his head on the way down to the floor.

_“I have a friend like that too,” He’d explained while he was retrieving ice for Tyler's head._

_“A maniac?” Tyler asked._

_“Worse; the president of Omega Chi,” Josh grinned. “Debby Ryan.”_

Tyler knows Debby. Debby is somehow both a good friend and arch nemesis of Jenna’s. Debby apparently spends all her time with Josh. Tyler disagrees because if that were the case he would have seen Josh before.

And he definitely would have remembered that.

“Maybe it’s because you’re not in a frat?” Josh suggests. He’s graciously allowing Tyler to finish his pizza with him while the Zetas that didn’t manage to escape clean up the living room under the watchful eyes of some very disgruntled Kappas.

Tyler shrugs. “Probably.”

“How d’you know those guys anyway?” Josh asks curiously, taking a bite into his pizza.

Tyler does not stare when Josh licks his lips. He does _not_.

“Uh…” Words Tyler, remember how to use words.

Josh looks at him expectantly.

“I pushed Jenna in the mud.”

Tyler mentally bangs his head on the table. Josh stares.

“…You pushed Jenna in the mud.”

“I mean,” Tyler scratches his head. “Jenna Black, the Delta Psi president? We grew up together. I- uh… pushed her in the mud when we were like five and we’ve been friends ever since.” 

Josh smiles widely. Tyler’s stomach does a funny little flip at the way his eyes crinkle and his nose scrunches.

Tyler is totally not completely crushing on this guy already.

“That’s cool. Jenna’s cool.”

 “Yeah, she is,” Tyler nods in agreement.

Okay, maybe he doesn’t _completely_ hate Pete for making him get involved, but he’s going to be paying for a new shirt.


	2. Lucky he's a charmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler goes to the store to get Lucky Charms and returns with Josh's number.

The worst thing about college, Tyler decided long ago, is responsibility. Too many times has Tyler come home to his apartment to find bubbles spilling out of the washing machine and he is totally not amused by it. Also, his roommate is not as sympathetic about this as he’d like.

“Dude,” Frank draws out the word slowly as the washer emits a loud gurgling sound. Tyler refuses to sympathise with it. If it didn’t try to eat his clothes it wouldn’t be drowning in suds right now. 

“Why does this always happen to me?” Tyler asks no one in particular.

Frank, being the only human being around to hear Tyler, answers cheerfully.

“It’s like your cursed. Did you ever break a mirror or like… step on your mother’s back?”

“It’s step on a crack, break your mother’s back, Frank,” Tyler says tiredly.

“Oh, well that then. Speaking of mothers, yours called, she said to call her back the second you got home.”

“… Frank I got home two hours ago and you’re only telling me this now.”

“Well I forgot until now,” Frank shrugs. “I got into this epic online battle with Gee and his little brother and I couldn’t just leave them to fight the Draculoids alone!”

Tyler likes Frank. No really, he does. He’s tidy and funny and he sometimes buys Tyler Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It’s just sometimes he’s a little hard to keep up with, especially when Tyler’s had a bad day and he’s doing his best to just stay awake let alone follow the way Frank’s weird little world works. 

This is what he tells his mother when she asks how Frank is.

“He’s just excited, honey.” 

“About what, though?” Tyler grumbles down the phone. 

“Life,” His mom says. “You used to be like that when you were little.” 

“Frank’s not little, mom,” Well he is, but not in the way Tyler’s mom means.

“A child on the inside,” She says warmly. “You used to be like that all the time before you went off to college.”

Tyler rubs his nose. “That’s because college sucks.”

He can practically hear his mom’s frown through the phone. He knows he’s going to get a lecture if he’s not careful.

“Did something happen today, sweetie?”

How does one phrase “Yes Pete pulled me into one of his stupid pranks again so I got soaked and I ended up meeting this really nice cute guy who made me laugh only to get dragged away by Pete to eat tacos that we never ended up buying” without sounding like an idiot? 

“No,” Tyler sighs.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Tyler says not so surely.

His mom makes a sound like she doesn’t quite believe him, but to his great relief she doesn’t pursue the matter any further. 

“How’s class going? How’s Jenna? Is she dating anyone at the moment?”

“Class is fine,” Tyler says honestly. He’s never had much trouble with his Minor in English and Basketball wasn’t exactly hard. He got a scholarship for it and everything so it’s not like he isn’t good at it. “Jenna’s fine, and no she keeps flirting with this girl who works at Starbucks, but we’re pretty sure she has a girlfriend.”

His mom laughs at that. Typical Jenna, she says. She’s not wrong.

The conversation lasts another ten minutes before Tyler hears the oven beeper in the background of the call and his mom has to rush off to make dinner. A drop of nostalgia twists in his stomach slightly. He misses home a lot these days.

Frank appears in the doorway.

“You wanna order pizza and trash talk the Kardashians with me?”

Tyler doesn’t even think about it before responding with “Heck yeah.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

The next time Tyler sees Josh he’s trying to grab his favourite cereal from the back of a really high shelf in the local grocery store. Tyler’s not being deliberately difficult, he’s pretty sure it’s the last box of Lucky Charms in the store and _Frank ate the last of it at home_ , so he’s been reduced to jumping up and down like maniac trying to get it.

It’s when he spots Josh that this goes horribly wrong and the inevitable happens. Tyler manages to get a hold of the box he wants only to bring down half the rest of the cereal shelf with it. The next thing he knows he’s on the ground lying under a mountain of various cereal boxes blinking up at the ceiling.

Josh appears in his field of vision looking concerned and offers him a hand. Tyler takes it and staggers to his feet with Josh’s help. He tries to ignore the way his face is burning. He just knows it’s red as a fire truck right now.

“Are you okay?”

“Who, me? Yeah sure, pfft I totally meant to do that,” Tyler brushed himself down and picked up the box of Lucky Charms to wave them triumphantly. “Ha! I got them.”

Josh does not have a natural reaction to this. Most people would look at Tyler as if he were insane, instead Josh just smiles and huffs out a laugh.

“So do you just fall a lot or is it only when I’m around?” He asks jokingly.

Tyler would like to be able to say it must be Josh because he never usually falls. Sadly this is not the case, Tyler falls often and on a regular basis, it is the most common thing he does. It’s not Tyler’s fault, honestly he actually has really good body control, it’s just that sometimes his feet go one way and he goes the other.

The other way mainly being towards the floor. 

“I am... vertically challenged,” Tyler says slowly. Josh laughs. The butterflies in Tyler’s stomach come to life and start a mosh pit.

No one should be that cute when they laugh; who the heck does this guy think he is? 

There are now several people staring at Tyler and Josh and the mess around them. Tyler picks up a box of Bran Flakes and puts them back on the shelf. A store clerk appears to ask if he’s okay. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Tyler reassures her.

She helps him and Josh pick up all the boxes and suddenly fifteen minutes later Tyler is walking from the shop beside Josh with three boxes of Lucky Charms (it turns out there were some in the back) and some apples in his grocery bag. 

“So I knocked for you at the Zetas the other day,” Josh breaks the quiet. “Y’know… to see if you were okay. I mean you hit your head pretty hard. I didn’t know where you lived so...” 

Tyler’s stomach practically bounces off his ribcage. He was going to strangle his friends for not telling him Josh had come looking for him. Who doesn’t tell somebody that? That is important information!

“Uh, yeah I don’t live there.”

Good one, Tyler. It’s not like Josh doesn’t already know that or anything. Seriously, what a clever thing to say. 

“I guessed,” Josh laughs. “So can I have your number?”

Tyler’s brain momentarily stops working.

“Tyler?” 

“Oh!” Tyler shuts his mouth which has been hanging open slightly for the past few seconds. “Um, sure.” 

Josh smiles again. Tyler’s insides turn to mush.

There’s a collection of awkward minutes when Tyler realises he doesn’t have a pen and Josh just laughs and hands him his phone to put the number it, but Tyler almost drops it. Luckily Josh seems to find whatever Tyler does a little bit funny. Tyler isn’t sure whether this is a blessing or not. 

Probably. Either way he gets to see Josh smile.

 

* * *

 

If Tyler spends that evening staring at his phone then it’s nobody’s business.

  

* * *

 

That Friday he gets a text. 

Jenna is holding court in the living room of the Delta Psi house while Tyler has his nails painted and they all watch America’s Next Top Model together. The topic of discussion this week: the Zeta’s Halloween Bash.

Now Tyler has nothing against parties, in fact he kind of loves them because it’s a neat way of learning all the gossip (Drunk people will tell you anything), but the Zeta Bash is not just a party. The Annual Zeta Halloween Bash is infamous for having the cops show up at 2am and arresting half the guests, starting fights and somehow there’s always a person found hungover in the university fountain the next morning.

Tyler does not enjoy being arrested. He’s already experienced that from the Halloween Bash and he does not wish to repeat it. Last time he got spat on and he lost his socks. They were his favourite socks and he mourned the loss for days afterwards. 

It doesn’t help that Jenna often tries to use any party to set Tyler up with random strangers he’s never met. He periodically has to remind her that while she may know almost everybody, he in fact does not.

“No shitty costumes,” Jenna decrees from where she’s sat on the floor painting Tyler’s nails a pretty fuchsia colour. “You put effort in or you don’t go.”

The rest of the girls hum in agreement. The few pledges hanging out with them that night looked scared to ask what constituted as a shitty costume. 

“If you need ideas just ask Tyler,” Hayley pipes up. Tyler’s head shoots up and he sends her a quick glare. She gives him a small smile and a shrug. Tyler regrets letting Jenna show her the photo album.

Tyler loves Halloween. Like seriously _loves_ it. And he always puts an effort in even if that means making his own costume. Every year since they were thirteen Tyler has made costumes for him and Jenna, they often match and he’s secretly very proud of them.

“No way, Tyler’s _my_ costume guide,” Jenna says. “Get your own.”

There’s a few disappointed complaints, but they’re soon shushed away so Jenna can list the best places to buy costumes near campus.

Tyler likes the Deltas. They’re nice to him and give him food, but he’s not looking forward to seeing half of them drunk. The year before one of the girls, Ashlee, had come on to him and tried to shove her hand into his pants only to be punched in the face by Jenna for it. It was not a pleasant experience.

“Do I have to go?” Tyler asks quietly, when yelling at the judges on TV distracts most of the girls. 

Jenna gives him an even look and raises her eyebrow. “Yes. You’re my wingman, okay? You have to go. Plus, who’s going to stop me from making bad decisions?”

Tyler sighs. She has a good point.

“I don’t want to,” He whines. “I don’t want end up in a prison cell again.”

“Stop being over dramatic, you won’t get arrested again,” Jenna says, moving on to his other hand. 

Tyler huffs at that. He is never dramatic. Ever. He just knows this party will probably kill him.

“You want to discuss costume ideas?” Jenna smiles. She knows he’ll bite.

He’s silent for a moment before giving in. “I was thinking skeletons.”

“Skeletons?”

“Yeah, like we can use stage makeup and that neon paint so we-“ Tyler’s phone buzzes.

He nods to his pocket and Jenna pulls it out and unlocks the screen quickly.

Jenna doesn’t say anything.

Tyler frowns. 

Jenna smirks.

Alarm bells ring in Tyler’s head.

“Who’s Josh?” Jenna asks.

Oh no, now Jenna knew about Josh.

Oh yes, Josh texted him! 

Tyler lunges for the phone, but she’s too quick for him. The rest of the girls have turned their attention from the show back to Jenna and Tyler.

“Give it to me!” 

“Hey Tyler,” Jenna reads out loudly. Tyler is trying his hardest not to ruin his half done nails as he grapples for the phone. “Sorry I didn’t text you til now, I was helping Patrick with something. Just wanted to know-“

“I hate you,” Tyler interjects.

 “-if I’ll see you at the Halloween Bash next weekend? TTYL, Josh.”

Jenna’s grin has become so wide Tyler fears she may either turn into the Cheshire cat or her face will split in half.

“Who’s Josh, Tyler?” Hayley asks.

“Helping Patrick,” Jenna says. “Josh… as in Dun? The VP of the Kappas?”

There’s a chorus of “ooohs” and catcalls from the girls. A blush creeps up Tyler’s neck.

“Maybe,” He mutters.

“You’re going red,” One of the girls says. He thinks her name is Riley. “You like him!”

“What?! No I don’t!” He insists. He _does_ _not_ like Josh. Or his ridiculous hair and adorable smile.  

“You so do,” Jenna says gleefully. “You’ve gone all tomato and mumbly! You love him!” 

“I do not love Josh Dun!” 

His head snaps up at the sound of a dial tone. Jenna is holding his phone to her ear. Dread shoots through Tyler’s veins like fire.

“No!” A final jump forward lands Tyler in the popcorn bowl and further out of reach of his phone than he originally was. 

Jenna’s put the phone on speaker. The girls are giggling. Josh picks up.

“Hello?” Tyler’s stomach somersaults at the sound of his voice.

“Hang up!” Tyler hisses at Jenna, she waves him off with a smile.

“Hi Josh! It’s Jenna, Jenna Black?”

“Oh yeah, hi. How come you have Tyler’s phone?”

“Oh well, Tyler’s kind of busy at the moment-“

Tyler hates his life.

“I hate my life,” He says to no one in particular. Hayley giggles.

“-so I offered to call and let you know that he is definitely going to see you at the bash and he is _definitely_ looking forward to it.”

“Great!” Josh says brightly. “I’ll see him there then... and you too I guess?" 

“Yep, we’ll see you there!”

“Awesome!”

Jenna hangs up.

Tyler stares at her.

The girls stare at Tyler.

“I just got you a date!” Jenna says proudly.

Tyler sighs. “That is not a date. That is two people going to the same event and possibly seeing each other there.”

“But he wanted to make sure he’ll see you!” 

Tyler groans at the excitement in Jenna’s voice. He knows what’s coming.

“You have to ask him out!”

Tyler regrets meeting all of his friends.

  

* * *

 

 

The next morning Tyler has the unfortunate luck of waking up to Pete sat on the end of his bed practically buzzing with excitement.

“I have the ultimate prank,” He announces.

Tyler groans and falls against his pillow. It’s a Saturday. Saturday is supposed to be his day off from crazy.

It’s been two weeks since the Kiss My Water disaster and Tyler cannot believe Pete hasn’t accepted defeat yet. About a week after the flood incident the Kappas struck back at the Zetas by filling their house and all their cars with Justin Bieber balloons.

“Please don’t make me,” Tyler says into his pillow.

“But you haven’t even heard the plan yet!”

Tyler lets out a long-suffering sigh. He is 99% sure he does not want to hear the plan whatsoever, but he’s got a horrible feeling he will anyway.

“I call it Operation Close Shave.”

Tyler definitely does not want to hear the plan.

When Pete is done explaining Tyler regrets ever showing him where the spare key to their apartment was.

“Why me?” Tyler asks the ceiling.

“Oh c’mon!” Pete says. “It’s a great plan. It’s genius. It’s my best yet.”

“What’s going on?” Frank appears in the doorway wearing his pyjamas and looking like he also regrets allowing Pete to know where the spare key is. 

“We’re going to foam the Kappas!”

Frank looks at Tyler. Tyler looks at Frank. Frank opens his mouth to say something, but obviously thinks better of it and just walks away. 

“I don’t understand why no one appreciates my genius,” Pete grumbles. 

“You still owe me a new shirt,” Tyler points out.


	3. Too Spooky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His heart beats faster, he swears he can feel the blood pumping in his veins, and anticipation fills his gut dangerously.
> 
> Tyler hates interruptions.

Operation Close Shave goes surprisingly well, all things considered… that being said Tyler still hates Pete for getting him involved. It’s also safe to say that the Kappas clearly do not appreciate Pete’s ‘genius’ as much as he’d like, and it’s not long until an actual war is declared.

Tyler fears for the safety of his remaining clean clothes.

It’s six am when Pete first wakes him to kick the plan into motion. They’ve spent the past two days planning the prank and Pete has decided that Monday is the best day to do it on because “All the Kappas will be out getting an education and stuff!”

“Pete, we’re supposed to be getting an education too!”

Pete did not listen to disagreements. So that is how Tyler ended up rolling out of bed at ridiculous-o’clock and ditching a lecture for the first time in the history of his educational career. To Pete’s delight Tyler couldn’t even complain; he’d been heavily involved in the plan. This isn’t because he wants to be credited as an amazing prankster or anything; this is because he cannot control his annoying sense of moral responsibility when it came to the safety of everyone involved.

Pete is not very good at considering the dangerous parts of his plans. It’s probably a good thing Tyler weighed in to be honest.

Operation Close Shave goes something like this:

 

**THINGS YOU WILL NEED**

**500 cans of shaving cream**

_(“That sounds a bit excessive Pete.” “No. It’s perfect.”)_

**Money for 500 cans of shaving cream**

_(“Does the Zeta budget even cover this?” “…”)_

**5 Freezers**

_(“These are not going to fit in this freezer.” “They will if we throw out the vegetables.”)_

**Balaclavas and black clothes**

_(“We look hot.” “Shut up, Pete.”)_

**Walkie-talkies**

_(“I’m pretty sure Pete stole those from the kids down the street.”)_

**People**

_(“We can’t make the pledges skip class!” “Not all of them have class on Monday!”)_

**Too much free time**

_(“I can’t believe I’m helping you with this”)_

  

 

**THE PLAN:**

**Step 1)** Alarm several store assistants at your local superstore by filling two trolleys with 500 cans of shaving cream. Purchase this shaving cream. Do not laugh when Pete drives a trolley into a pile of toilet roll (it just encourages him).

 **Step 2)** Take your newly purchased shaving cream cans and put them in the freezer… or five freezers. The vegetables prevent them from fitting in one alone.

 **Step 3)** Listen as Tyler complains about the ridiculous use of his freezer.

 **Step 4)** Use the whole weekend to freeze these cans. It takes a while, so just kick back and relax… and prepare.

 **Step 5)** Wake up at the ass crack of dawn on The Day Of Action and cry for a bit over how it’s too early. Get dressed (“Black like a funeral.” “What Tyler?” “Oh… nothing.”) and put your balaclavas on. Meet at the pre-arranged meeting spot (i.e. at the bench across from the record store).

 **Step 6)** Split your people into three groups; The Watchmen, The Distraction and The Action. Equip them all with walkie-talkies and handbags of the frozen cans out to The Action group. It is now we have to move quickly.

 **Step 7)** Station the Watchmen on different points of the street. You should have already sent The Distraction to cause chaos at the Kappa house. You watch as the remaining Kappas proceed to leave looking confused as several Delta girls and Zeta boys ask them to breakfast. Then The Action quickly make their way into the house.

 **Step 8)** Working as quickly as possible The Action should cut off the tops of the foam cans and place them all over the living room of the Kappa house. Once all the cans are down they make their way out and signal to the rest they are done.

 **Step 9)** Get Mark to set up his camera again and wait.

 

Tyler wishes he didn’t feel as satisfied as he did watching the video of the prank, but the look on the Kappa’s faces when the first few return from class is possibly one of the funniest things he’s ever witnessed. Beside him Pete is doubled over laughing and the rest of the guys in the Zeta’s living room with them are struggling to contain themselves too. 

The Kappa’s living room is slowly filling with foam. They had to work as quickly as possible to open all those cans, each taking a few minutes, and as a result everyone got a little bit covered in the ever-expanding foam as they worked anyway. Tyler’s proud he thought of the wearing prank-safe clothes. He had not been willing to lose another shirt to the likes of a Wentz-Prank.

The true hilarity comes when they see Josh and Patrick appear behind the horror-struck Kappa brothers. They both look straight up to where the camera is.

Tyler loses it. So does everybody else.

A few moments later Pete receives a text.

[Patrick; I hate you.]

Pete prints the text out and frames it. It’s not pinned proudly on the Zeta fridge door.

 

* * *

 

 

For some reason news gets around that Tyler was involved in Operation Close Shave. This is possibly because Mark filmed the whole weekend and put it on YouTube as an episode of his new series “Prank Wars: The Making Of”, and Tyler is not amused. There is definitely footage of him screaming about health and safety in that video.

Pete laughs at him. And if Pete wakes up with shaving cream down his shirt, then Tyler is totally not to blame. 

The excitement over the prank quickly fades as it’s replaced by the buzz for the Halloween Bash. Zeta’s popularity as a Fraternity has grown recently, with more people suddenly asking if they can pledge late. They can’t, but Pete’s chest puffs proudly every time it happens. 

By the time the party swings around Tyler’s been so preoccupied with creating costumes for Jenna and himself he almost forgets about Josh being there, but not completely… which results in him fidgeting nervously as Jenna attempts to smear glow in the dark paint around his face in a vague skull shape.

“Sit still,” She says, almost poking him in the eye with her expertly painted black nails. Tyler painted them for her as usual, and he’s quite proud of how neatly he managed to do it despite his nerves.

“I can’t,” Tyler whines. “It’s not my fault.”

“What are you so nervous about anyway?” She asks. “It’s not like you have to make a good first impression. He’s already seen you grumpy and soaked.”

Tyler makes a face at her. She makes one back and laughs. 

“You’ll be fine,” Jenna assures him.

“What if he sees me and realises he doesn’t actually like me?”

“Then he’d be an idiot. Plus…” She pauses for a moment to grab more paint. “It’s impossible not to be amazed by your costumes. I think these might be your best yet.”

By the time they’ve finished painting their faces, Jenna and Tyler look like the creepiest, most fashionable glow in the dark skeletons ever to exist. The designs on their skin are intricately patterned with UV paint and white. They both spent several hours learning how to draw them so they’d look good for the party. Their costumes are almost skin-tight onesies displaying twisting skeletons that Tyler made with black cotton and white strips of the brightest fabric he could find. He knows the UV lighting at the party will be insane, so he and Jenna should light up like terrifying fireworks.

“We look badass,” Jenna says as they admire themselves in the mirror.

She’s absolutely right, as usual. 

They turn up to the party early, after a lot of disagreement of how to get there (Jenna didn’t want to walk, Tyler didn’t want the insides of his car to be luminescent) and scaring several members of the public, weighed down by plastic bags of beer and glow sticks.

The glow sticks had been Jenna’s idea. She’d bought about two hundred. Tyler doesn’t want to know how much money she spent on objects made to be broken.

Their arrival is greeted with an enthusiastic response from their friends. Tyler allows a little burst of pride to fill his chest as they admire the costumes. Jenna’s right, they’re his best ones yet.

The party is already louder than Tyler would like. Music pounds through the walls and vibrates through his bones as if they’re hollow. Half of the rooms are filled with flashing strobe lights (a warning about which has been posted outside on a large sign for people’s safety), the kitchen is low lit but filled with plastic jack-o’-lanterns and there are fake spider webs blocking off the entrance to the staircases. Cheesy decorations have been pinned up in the corridor, much like the outside of the house which has been turned into a graveyard for the night, and every so often a loud shriek erupts from a speaker in the bathroom.

Tyler’s pretty sure that’s just going to result in pee all over the floor by the end of the night.

Pete is ridiculously bouncy. He keeps tugging on the neck of his werewolf costume and takes his mask off every few seconds to check if Patrick’s arrived. Tyler’s not sure why he’s so concerned about the Kappa President’s whereabouts, but Pete’s projecting anxious vibes that make Tyler’s guts twist unpleasantly.

He needs a drink.

“I need a drink,” Tyler announces loudly over the music, just as Jenna appears holding to bottles of beer.

“Here,” She says brightly. “Don’t get too drunk, I’m not carrying you home again.” 

“That was one time!” Tyler objects. Jenna had been drunk way more times than him.

“And you broke my favourite lamp,” She says. 

“… I paid for a new one.”

“Yeah, in pizzas.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy them.”

“They were delicious, but they did not fix my lamp.”

Tyler’s about to come back with a reminder of the time Jenna broke his stereo dancing to the High School Musical soundtrack, but Pete interrupts him by bouncing into his side.

“He’s here!” 

Across the room a group of Kappa brothers have arrived and are slowly filing through the door. Patrick’s stood at the front of them looking mildly uncomfortable in the flashing light. He’s dressed as a pumpkin and Tyler’s not sure whether that’s funny or adorable, but he kind of wants to give the guy a hug. It’s not like Patrick hates parties, but just like Tyler he needs a few minutes to loosen up and get used to his surroundings.

Especially when there are strobes.

Pete gets halfway across the room, bounding like the excited bunny he’s dressed as, before changing course and heading for the kitchen instead. Tyler’s laugh gets cut off because it even reaches his throat because Jenna’s just pointed someone out. 

Tyler immediately decides it’s unfair for anybody to ever be that attractive when they are dressed in a suit.

“What even are you?” He blurts out when Josh approaches him with a smile. Jenna snorts from beside him.

“A talk show host,” Josh grins. “Is there anything scarier?”

“A dead talk show host,” Jenna pipes up. Josh turns to her with a smile and looks her up and down.

“Jenna, right? I’ve seen you at Greek events,” Josh says. “Nice costume.”

“Thank you,” She smiles and does a little twirl. “Courtesy of Tyler, of course.”

Tyler blushes under Josh’s appreciative smile.

“You made these?”

“Uh… I, um… yeah,” Tyler stammers. 

“Smooth,” Jenna whispers to Tyler, and then speaks loud enough for Josh to hear. “So you kids have fun, I’m going to go get drunk.” 

She disappears into the slowly growing crowd. 

They stand awkwardly in silence for a couple of minutes as Tyler sips his beer. It tastes like pee, but then again he’s never really liked the taste of alcohol.

“So…” Tyler starts, too quiet to be heard.

“You wanna go outside?” Josh suggests suddenly. Tyler nods vigorously and Josh grabs his hand. Tyler’s bottle sloshes dangerously as they make their way through the crowd, but he can’t seem to concentrate on anything other than his hand in Josh’s. He’s pretty sure his palm is sweating, which is gross, but Josh doesn’t seem to care.

Butterflies bite at his insides.

They get outside and collapse into the porch swing. The garden has been decorated with an equal amount of enthusiasm as the interior of the house. There are jack-o’-lanterns lining the edges of the garden and glowing red fairy lights in the trees. The porch has a barrel for apple bobbing and there are buckets of glow sticks for people to take dotted around. 

But at least it’s quiet.

 _Or at least slightly quieter than inside,_ Tyler thinks as a girl dressed as a nurse screams in delight while being chased by a zombie across the lawn.

“You look awesome,” Josh says as he spreads out next to Tyler.

Tyler looks at him and smiles. He takes a moment to admire Josh as he is in his bright blue suit and messy hair. Attraction bubbles up in his chest like an infection. 

“Thanks. You… you look pretty great too,” He feels his cheeks heat up and immediately curses his inability to form words when Josh is around.

Josh laughs and picks at his suit.

“To tell you the truth I didn’t really plan this, I kind of forgot about costumes.” 

“You forgot about costumes?” Tyler repeats slowly. “On Halloween.”

“Yeah,” Josh laughs again, a little nervously this time, and runs a hand quickly through his hair. “I was kind of focused on… something else.”

“What was that?” Tyler asks curiously. The whole point of Halloween is to dress up, how does anybody forget about costumes on a night like this?

“Uh…” Josh ducks his head slightly. “Seeing you.”

Tyler’s brain takes a moment to process this.

“Oh.”

“Sorry if that’s weird.”

“Wha- oh no!” Tyler almost drops his beer in his haste to reassure him. “No, no, that’s fine… that’s, that’s perfectly cool. Dandy even.”

_Dandy… really?_

Josh chuckles.

“So I heard you were the mastermind behind the foam idea?” Josh says after a beat of silence.

Tyler sighs. “No, it was Pete’s idea… I just stopped him from destroying anyone’s clothes, really.”

“You really think Pete could’ve pulled that off by himself?” Josh asks in disbelief. “No way man, you totally helped. I saw the video.”

Darn it, Mark, 

“You’ve gone red,” Josh says with a smile.

Tyler groans. He hates his face.

“So like, I don’t actually know much about you,” Josh says. “Apart from the fact that you’re smart and you like lucky charms… and you fall a lot.” 

Tyler’s insides squirm.

“Tell me about yourself, Tyler Joseph.”

It starts awkwardly, but soon Tyler is rambling as much as it’s possible to ramble. Josh nods and weighs in where he wants, but mostly he just sits looking interested. Tyler’s pretty sure he starts talking about marshmallows and their various flavours at some point, but he can’t seem to stop himself. He explains how he grew up home schooled, but got into college through a basketball scholarship, the game that he spends most of his time playing outside of English class and hanging out with the guys. He talks about his mom and dad and his siblings and the tree he used to sit under when he wanted to be alone and write. He rambles about Jenna for a good five minutes and about how she used to climb through his bedroom window and push him out of bed during sleepovers. He tells Josh more than he’s ever really told anyone before.

When he finally stops and breathes he manages to cough awkwardly and say, “Anyway… what about you?”

And then Josh does the same. It makes Tyler smile so much his cheeks hurt. 

He learns that Josh likes music, he’s a drummer and he enjoys playing, even if it annoys the heck out of his housemates and neighbours when he plays loudly at three am. He grew up with a good family and playing in various bands, he likes to skateboard and play soccer and he loves his frat brothers and the chaos that is the Kappa house. Tyler learns that Josh has dyed his hair several time since he started college, and decides that he definitely wants to see Josh with pink hair, and that Josh worked at the guitar centre for a while and has three siblings.

By the time Josh finishes speaking, Tyler is a little bit in love with him and whole lot attracted to him. Not that he wasn’t already. 

The party around them has grown in numbers and volume, and it’s beginning to look a little chaotic. Tyler knows this is not good, and he sees the warning signs right before the cops show up.

The music has been turned up twice as loud as it started, and the barrel for apple bobbing has been knocked over and the water has spilled across the porch. 

Stupidly, Tyler ignores all of this.

“You’re really cool, you know that right?” Josh says. Tyler looks at him.

Josh is looking at his lips. Tyler’s palms sweat a little more.

“So ar- I mean… you are too, cool. You’re really cool,” Tyler’s voice cracks slightly 

Josh leans forward a little more. Tyler closes his eyes. His heart beats faster, he swears he can feel the blood pumping in his veins, and anticipation fills his gut dangerously.

The sound of smashing glass forces them both to jerk back. A group of people are cheering at a large whole punched in the kitchen window, an intricate network of cracks runs through the glass and shards are shattered across the wood of the porch. 

“Oh no,” Tyler says.

He hears the sirens sound.

Suddenly yelling and swearing surround them. Guests run in every direction, Tyler watches in a panic as several guys hop the fence. He can see the red and blue lights flashing over the yard’s gate. The music comes to a dramatically halt and Josh stands quickly with a curse. He grabs Tyler’s hand and pulls him up. Tyler drops his half drunk beer and watches it break in half with a crack that’s drowned out by the yelling.

All he cares about is the fact that Josh almost kissed him and the frickin’ cops showed up.

“Why me?” Tyler asks the sky. 

“C’mon,” Josh says and pulls him through the swirling crowd.

  

* * *

  

Two hours and several buckets full of regret later Tyler is sat in a police cell covered in sweat, booze and smudged face paint. There’s glow stick liquid in his hair and somewhere along the line he lost his left shoe.

“Unbelievable,” He says to himself. “How does this always happen to me?”

Josh huffs out a laugh from where he's sprawled beside him. Tyler's vaguely annoyed that he looks so good even when completely wrecked. His hair is a sticky mess and there’s UV paint smeared across his cheek, the suit jacket he’d been wearing was now around the arms of a very cold girl from the party dressed as a cave-girl, and his pants had some unidentified white substance down the side. They’d decided not to question it for their own peace of mind.

“You do seem to attract trouble,” Josh says. “I was half expecting you to be under all that foam when we found it the other day. It was kind of disappointing when you weren’t.” 

“It’s the Zetas fault,” Tyler sighs dramatically. “I could be living a life of peace and pizza right now if I didn’t know them, but here I am… sat in a cell. Again. On Halloween.”

“Again?”

“This happened last year too.”

Josh snickers. “I remember that actually, I managed to avoid arrest… broke my foot though.”

“How?” Tyler asks curiously.

“Jumped out the window.”

This startles a laugh out of Tyler. It sounds like a very Josh thing to do.

Across from them a couple of guys huff in annoyance at their talking. Tyler looks at them, their costumes are unrecognisable now, but he knows that they’re Kappa guys. He’s seen them around the house when visiting Brendon before.  They’re pledges, new and aggressive he knows, and they look nothing short of pissed as hell about the current situation. 

One of them glares at him. His dark hair flops into his face, but for some reason it doesn’t make him look any less threatening.

“You a Zeta?” The guy spits at him. Tyler recoils at the harsh tone.

“Paul,” Josh says warningly. Tyler’s confused for a moment before remembering of course Josh knows him… he’s the Kappa VP.

“Whatever,” Paul rolls his eyes.

Josh and Tyler look at each other in confusion.

“Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun?” One of the officers calls, pulling the cell door to the side for them. “Your friend’s here to collect you.”

Tyler was immensely grateful that Frank keeps his phone on at all times because it would’ve been a real waste of a single phone call if he hadn’t answered.

Frank accompanies the two out to the parking lot where the cold air bites at Tyler's cheeks playfully. The Kappa pledges from before follow not far behind them with their own saviours. 

“Zeta rocks,” Frank snickers mockingly at Tyler’s appearance. He chose to sit out on the party this year, having spent last year as Tyler’s roommate and experiencing exactly the same thing. 

“Zeta rocks,” Tyler agrees drily.

He's looking forward to his shower. 

 


	4. Interlude: A Message From The President(s)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A message to the Brothers and Sisters and all those in between.
> 
> (P.S Mikey is upset.)

Dear Pete (and the rest of the Zeta Nu Brothers),

            There is foam in my socks. There is foam on my favourite armchair. There is foam on my pledges.

 **F O A M.**  

What did you do? Do you know how hard it is to wash foam out of fabric? Very, as it turns out. _Very_ hard Pete. I don’t know what inspired you to think of shaving foam, whether it was our conversation when you met me in the store the other day or if you read it online, but this is officially the worst thing you’ve done yet.

It took _FOUR HOURS_ to mop that foam up. It got in Brendon’s ear. Do you know what it’s like to listen to Brendon whine about something that isn’t his boyfriend? It’s horrific, truly horrific. I have never before wanted to nail my ears shut, but that made me want to. I am so incredibly _over_ these pranks.

That being said, I am being encouraged by an alarming amount of my frat brothers to do the opposite of ending the war. I’ve been outvoted. Sadly, there is nothing I can do.

So here it is, in writing:

 **We – the Brotherhood of Kappa Delta Pi - hereby formally declare your actions worthy of battle and from this day forward will fight for our brother’s honour until a white flag is waved.**  

(In other words, your ass is mine Wentz and we’re coming for you.)

Faithfully,

                   President Patrick Stump of KDP

 

* * *

  

Dear President Patty,

                                    I have read your proposal and decided for the safety of all brotherhoods involved we must decline. However your previous letter has made it clearly that this is not an option and we are hereby forced to accept this declaration of war wholeheartedly like the good sports we are.

With this is mind I wish you good luck in your future futile attempts to disarm us and hope you will not take your downfall too hard.

More faithfully,

                        President Pete Wentz of ZN

(P.S. The Deltas want in on this. Jenna’s signed the bottom of this letter to give her permission.)

 

* * *

 

Dear Pete,

                 Firstly, I would like to formally request you never address me as ‘President Patty’ or anything similar _EVER AGAIN._ Secondly I would like to address the matter of your bloated ego and assure you that it’ll most definitely be your head being waved on a stick by the time this war comes to an end. Trust me on this, you may have stink bombs, but I have brains. 

I hope you will be well enough to attend your Brotherhood’s funeral by the end of this academic year, as we’re sure your reputation will be six feet under the ground in no time. Have no fear; I’m sure it will be a very dignified funeral.

Extremely faithfully,

                                    President Patrick Stump of KDP

(P.S Our Neighbouring sorority Omega Chi is henceforth also taking part. Please see the signature at the bottom and be assured Debby is ready to cream you all.)

 

* * *

 

Debby,

            I cannot believe you got involved.

Sincerely yours,

                           President Pete Wentz of ZN

 

* * *

 

Wentz,

            It’s Josh’s fault. He got me involved.

Sincerely,

                 President Debby Ryan of Omega Chi

 

* * *

Dearest Debby,

                        I resent that. Getting the Omegas involved was your idea and yours alone. I just wanted to get some pizza; you’re the one who insisted on hearing the plan.

Screw you,

                   Vice President Josh Dun of Kappa Delta Pi

 

* * *

 

 Josh,

          Have you been reading Wentz’s mail? That's weird man, you're not even in the same Brotherhood.

Sincerely,

                 Debby

 

* * *

  

Debby,

            Nah he reads them out at Greek meetings.

Sincerely,

                 Josh

 

* * *

 

Dear Zetas, Kappas, Deltas and Omegas,

Stop using the Pledges as messengers, they are not qualified mail delivery people and I keep having to pay them in pizza whenever one of them arrives at the door. We all live within a six block radius to one another. Get your acts together and drop them off yourselves.

Sincerely,

                 Vice President Michael Way of Zeta Nu

(P.S Fuck you all for not telling me what’s going on.)

 

* * *

 

 

 


	5. The Great Spaghetti Fiasco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler and Josh go on a date.
> 
> Tyler hates his friends.

**Chapter 5**

Tyler is rudely awoken by the sun streaming through his window on to his face… it’s not really something new, he starts almost every day like this, it’s hard to ignore the sun when you have no curtains. He should really get on that.

He can hear Frank banging around the in the kitchen, probably making pancakes or something (he’s had a bit of a fixation with pancakes lately, Tyler’s getting concerned) as he squints blearily at his wall. Faces stare back at him, smiling their plastic smiles, silent on the shiny paper. 

The wall of photographs had been Jenna’s idea to ‘brighten up his room’. Really they just fall down a lot and rustle ominously during the night. Tyler supposes it’s a nice idea, all his memories and friends plastered across his bedroom, but he knows it’s just a way of stopping the room from being a completely blank canvas of grey. It’s kind of depressing really. 

He sighs and rolls over, burrowing back into his pillow for sleep, only to be disturbed merely seconds later by the rude buzzing of his phone on the nightstand.

“Ugh,” He tells the room before stretching out a lazy arm and grabbing the phone.

After an awkward few seconds of clumsy handling, he finally gets the phone to his ear and hits accept call.

“Why?” He asks the caller with a groan. A laugh trickles out the other end of the line. Josh’s laugh.

“Tyler?” Tyler sits bolt upright, sleep forgotten. He shoves the sheets back and makes a desperate attempt at getting up.

Instead of managing to get to his feet and choke out a sophisticated response to the other boy, he hits his foot unwittingly on the edge of the nightstand and trips, sheets tangling with his legs, before landing with a loud thump on the floor.

Frank clatters into existence in the doorway holding a pan half filled with pancake mix.

“Dude, are you okay?” He asks, looking at Tyler on the floor with wide-eyed concern.

“Yeah,” Tyler gasps.  “I’m-“

He’s interrupted by a small voice next to his head.

“Hello? Tyler? You there?”

Tyler grabs the phone. 

“Josh! Hi!” Smooth.

“Hi,” Josh chuckles. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“What? No,” Tyler yawns. 

Josh laughs again then continues. “I was just wondering if you’re free tonight?”

“Tonight?” Tyler asks. “Um…”

Frank snickers in the doorway. The smell of smoke wafts into the bedroom. Tyler frowns and points to the pan in his hand, which Frank seems to have forgotten about. Frank’s eyes widen once again and he disappears back to the kitchen 

“Tyler?” Josh asks. 

“What?” 

“…Tonight, are you free?”

“Oh! Yes, yes I am. I mean, I was going to call my mom, but I can reschedule.”

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t want to make you miss family time.”

“No, no, I mean yes. It’s fine. It’s cool, why?” Tyler mentally slaps himself. Why does he find speaking so hard?

“I was thinking I could take you out to dinner… if you want,” Josh actually sounds kind of nervous, Tyler notes, it’s sweet.

Then it hits him.

“D-dinner? Like… a date?” Wow Tyler, you really are a charmer.

“Yeah, if it’s cool with you! I mean… if you’re not into that it’s cool, I just thought-“ 

“I am! Into that I mean. Boys. I like boys. And dating. Totally.”

Tyler can hear Frank cackling from the kitchen. He shuts the door with a huff.

“I would love to go out to dinner with you,” He says slightly less manically. “Tonight.” 

“Great!” Josh replies brightly. He sounds genuinely happy and Tyler’s insides melt a little because of it.

“Awesome,” Tyler breathes.

“So I’ll pick you up at seven? Just text me your address.”

“Sure.”

“Sick. See you then,” Josh hangs up.

Tyler stares at his phone for a minute, brain whirring amazed. After a moment he shakily shoots off a text with his address to Josh and then drops the phone in order to burst out into the kitchen. Frank jumps and almost drops his whisk.

“Christ, Tyler!”

“I’ve got a date with Josh!”

“I thought the other night was a date?” Frank asks curiously.

“What? No! That was just the party. He just happened to be there. This is a date! An actual date! Like, at a restaurant with fancy utensils and dinner and date-type things!” Tyler buzzes excitedly.

“What if he takes you to burger king?” 

“Who cares?! I’ve got a date with Josh! I’ve got a date with Josh!” He crows.

“Don’t do the happy dance,” Frank says too late with a grimace. 

Tyler climbs on to the table and dances. Well, it’s less of a dance and more the loose swinging of limbs in little coordination. 

“You’re going to break the table one day,” Frank sighs.

“I’ve got a date with Josh!” Tyler replies.

 The fire alarm goes off.

 

* * *

 

Forty-five minutes, a fight with the fire alarm and several sarcastic comments from Frank, Tyler is panicking. He’s got a date with Josh. A _date_. With Josh. Tyler’s never been on a date before (unless you count that time Jenna tried to set him up with the pizza delivery boy… which Tyler does not).

What do people on dates even do? What will he say? _What will he wear?_

“I don’t have any date-suitable clothes!” He panics at Frank.

Frank is in the processing of sighing and dialling a number on the phone. 

“What am I going to do? Oh my gosh, do I even have money for a date? Is he paying, are we splitting the bill?! I don’t know the etiquette, Frank!” 

“Hey Jenna,” Frank says into the phone as Tyler has his melt down at the table. “Yeah, he’s doing it again. I think he’s gonna bust a rib if he doesn’t calm down. Come sort it out. Yeah, thanks.”

 

* * *

 

Tyler does not enjoy clothes shopping, but as of right now he doesn’t really have much of a choice. He’s sat in a dressing room of a shop he can’t remember the name of while Jenna and Hayley continuously hand him more clothes to try on.

_“I can’t believe you don’t have any nice clothes,” Jenna had asked in the car. “What happened to that shirt you mom bought you for your birthday?”_

_“Pete happened,” Tyler replied darkly._  

“Do I really need a jacket?” Tyler frowns at his reflection. “It’s dinner, not a business meeting.” 

Hayley’s head appears around the curtain. Tyler squawks in indignation.

“I could’ve been naked!”

“Right,” She rolls her eyes. “That jacket looks sweet. What’s wrong with it?”

“Josh is a college student,” Tyler says pointedly. “It’s not going to be a five star restaurant with eight courses and dessert wine.”

“You never know, he could turn out to be a secret billionaire,” Hayley’s head wiggles its eyebrows and disappears again after thrusting yet another shirt at him. 

Oh gosh, what if Josh is a secret billionaire?

Tyler shakes himself. This is ridiculous.

“It’s one date!” He calls out. “I don’t need thirteen different shirts!”

“There might be more dates!” Jenna’s distant voice calls.

“ _Thirteen_ dates?!”

“You never know!”

More clothes fly over the railing and hit him in the face. He stands there for a moment and just let’s the items slowly drop away from him with sigh before looking at them.

He frowns at the bundle and pulls out a yellow polka dot tie.

“I am not wearing any of this!”

 Jenna’s cackle fills the whole store.

 

* * *

  

After the clothes the next stop was getting shoes that weren’t vans because apparently his flower shoes were ‘inappropriate’ and ‘clashed with his shoes’. Whatever. He was totally wearing the flower shoes.

They end up leaving the shoe shop quite hastily after Tyler accidentally kicks the attendant in the face. He’s ticklish, okay? So sue him. It’s not his fault the guy had to go measuring his feet unnecessarily.

  

* * *

 

 

Apart from assaulting a sales person, Tyler decides it’s been a pretty good day. He got to spend quality time with the girls without any interruptions from frat boys or sorority girls and nobody spilled anything in his car.

However the sight that greets him when he returns home soon pops his bubble of joy. Frank is sat at the kitchen table with ice on his face, nursing bruised knuckles and an ugly grimace. Gerard and Mikey, the Way brothers and Frank’s best friends, are there too. Gerard making coffee and Mikey placing bright pink band aids up and down Frank’s beat-up arm. 

Tyler almost drops his bags in shock.

“What happened?!” He sets his new things down quickly and heads into the kitchen.

“Couple of dickbags jumped him on my way to the store,” Mikey explains. “Assholes.” 

Frank groans in agreement. Tyler nods. 

“You know who they are?” 

Frank shakes his head slowly. “Nah, just some douchebags that didn’t like my makeup probably.”

There’s something in Frank’s eyes that tell Tyler he’s not telling the whole truth. Mikey and Tyler share a concerned glance.

“I still think we should report it to the police,” Gerard pipes up after a moment.

“You mean you haven’t yet?” This surprises Tyler. Usually when something bad happens Frank’s ready to report it to campus security as soon as possible.

Frank shrugs.

“Frank, who were they?”

“Just some stupid frat guys,” Frank sighs. Tyler frowns.

“Which ones?”

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know! They just had the stupid Greek letterman jackets, and that’s all I saw. I didn’t even see their faces before I was on the ground.”

Tyler runs a hand anxiously through his hair; Mikey looks as troubled as he feels right now. It’s not often you hear about any of the frat brothers getting violent. What’s worse is they don’t even know which Brotherhood they belong to.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Mikey says, as if reading Tyler’s mind. “We’ll find out who they are. They can’t get away with this.”

“I hope so,” Gerard huffs angrily.

 

* * *

 

 

That evening Tyler finds himself staring at a mirror as he readjusts his shirt collar over and over again nervously. He’s wearing new black skinny jeans (they don’t have holes in them which Jenna claims is a miracle) and a nice white shirt similar to the one Pete ruined with the water prank disaster, instead of a sleeveless top. He’s still wearing the flower shoes, despite Jenna’s protest, and he knows he looks sick as frick.

This is reaffirmed when Frank walks by the door and lets out as much of a low whistle as he can with his busted lip. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay tonight?” Tyler asks worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Frank reassures him. “Gee and Mikes are here. Besides, I can look after myself.”

Tyler resists the temptation pushing him to point out that he’s bruised and battered because he _can’t_ look after himself. 

“Anyway, Lover Boy’s at the door. Go have fun on your date.” 

Tyler takes a deep breath.

“Do I look okay?” 

“You look great. Now go!” Frank practically shoves Tyler out into the hall.

He turns to see the front door wide open and Josh looking picture perfect in the frame. His hair is tousled and chaotic as usual, but he’s wearing jeans not shorts and a nice shirt. 

Tyler’s going to puke.

“Nice shoes,” Josh smiles.

“Heh… thanks,” He replies sheepishly.

“I brought these for you,” Josh holds up a bunch of white and pink flowers. Tyler’s knees wobble a bit. He takes them with a smile.

“Thanks… I’ll just find some water for these.”

Ten minutes and a broken vase later, Tyler has changed his pants after spilling water all down them and they are now waling down the street talking about music. It’s surprisingly warm out for November and the street lamps illuminate the buildings around them. Tyler feels like he and Josh are the only two people alive in the world right now.

Josh takes him to a small Italian restaurant not too far from the university campus. It’s dimly lit and too warm, but it’s perfect. The waiter seats them by the window at a little table with a candle flickering in between them. Tyler’s nerves ease the more Josh talks and by the time they’ve ordered he’s almost completely calm.

That is, until the food arrives. Now Tyler’s brave enough to admit ordering spaghetti might’ve been a mistake, especially considering his inability to avoid stains and dropping things. Plus, it’s the first date and he does not think they’ve reached the _Lady and the Tramp_ stage yet.

Tyler eats _very_ carefully. He’s quite proud of himself for not spraying water out of his nose when Josh makes him laugh as he drinks. He’s doing well at appearing normal so far.

“—and it took a full _three hours_ to get him off the roof,” Tyler is in stitches when Josh finishes his story. He’s so funny. Tyler thinks he might die in awe of the way Josh looks lit up by the candle light. He’s so smart, and pretty, and caring— 

“Uh, Tyler,” Josh points to Tyler’s shirt. A forkful of spaghetti and tomato sauce drips slowly down the white cotton. 

Tyler hates his life.

“Shoot,” He curses, grabbing a napkin.

“Don’t rub it!” Josh warns. “Just dab, you’ll make it worse if you rub it." 

They don’t get dessert in the end; Josh just calls for the bill as Tyler attempts to save his shirt. He’s sure he’s blown it, who wants to date somebody that lacks the basic skills to eat dinner without dropping it down their front?

They walk out on to the street. Tyler prepares himself for the ‘I think we’re better as friends’ speech he’s heard his crushes give before. What he doesn’t expect is for Josh to turn around and offer to go back to the Kappa house for a spare shirt.

“I mean… it’s not far. We could watch a movie or something before you go home,” He says hopefully.

Tyler stares at him for a moment. Oh gosh, what does he do? Josh is offering him the choice to come back to his to watch a movie.

Does that mean sex? Not it can’t, it’s only the first date. But what if… what if it did? Tyler isn’t sure he’s ready for that right now. Oh no.

“Tyler?” Josh gives him a concerned look.

“I can’t!” Tyler blurts.

“Oh,” Josh’s face falls slightly. Guilt twists in Tyler’s stomach.

“Not that I wouldn’t love to!” He continues desperately. “It’s just… I left Frank at home and he’s all… beat up. And I have an English paper due. And basketball in the morning. It’s getting late. I’m sorry I just-“ 

“It’s okay,” Josh pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

Tyler breathes a sigh of relief. And then quickly adds, “But we can do it another time, yeah?”

Josh’s grin returns, eyes lighting up like a match has been lit in them, Tyler wants nothing more than to kiss him right there.

Instead of kissing, they walk. Josh walks Tyler right up to his apartment door. They stand there for a moment quietly.

“I had a great time tonight,” Tyler says honestly.

“Even though your shirt got ruined?” Josh asks.

“I hated it anyway,” He admits. 

Josh barks out a laugh and leans in.

“I had fun too,” He says.

Tyler’s heart races. He can feel blood pounding in his ears as Josh leans closer. He could study even the smallest of features on his face right now. Each and every one would be beautiful.

Tyler closes his eyes, but nothing happens because at that exact moment the door swings open to reveal Frank holding a trash bag. 

“Uh… hi guys. Sorry.”

Tyler leans back against the wall and silently curses Frank. He hates his friends.

 

* * *

 

The next morning Tyler wakes up to two separate texts.

 

 **[Josh;** Text me when you’re next free to hang out :) **]**

 

and

 

 **[Pete;** THEY FUCKING RELEASED PIGS IN THE HOUSE **]**


	6. Safety First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boyfriends.

After the Pig Pandemonium (that’s what Tyler’s taken to calling it in his head) the prank war begins to escalate to new levels. If Tyler’s completely honest it’s a little bit frightening. Pledges wake up in dumpsters, older frat brothers find their entire bedrooms relocated to the outside world, someone gets tied to a lamppost in their under, etc. It’s even started to attract the attention of other university students outside of the Greek community and the school radio station has taken to updating everyone on the most recent shots fired by the frats.

There’s one memorable night when Tyler is hanging out with Josh at the Kappa house only to find himself looking out the window in a cluster of other boys staring as the Zeta symbol lights up their lawn. Literally lights it up… they burned it into the grass. Tyler merely sighs and hopes that someone is stood by with an extinguisher in case it gets out of hand, but if it was Pete’s idea he highly doubts it.

Pete has no concept of safety.

And so it goes on like that. One strikes and waits in terror for the others to fire back and vice versa. The sororities have also thrown themselves into it with great enthusiasm; Jenna wakes up one morning to find half her sisters have had their hair dyed pink because their shampoos were switched.

They initiate a no personal-substance swap ban in case of allergic reactions, only because Tyler insists on it. 

By the end of the first two weeks Tyler is exhausted from switching between classes and mediating the war so nobody dies. He and Frank spend more time helping delivery messages between the four houses than they do in their own apartment studying and eventually they unplug their doorbell to stop Pete disturbing them in the middle of the night. 

Aside from that Tyler is having a great time. Josh calls him regularly, takes him out on dates and he reciprocates. They go to the movies and see some awful horror film about a zombie apocalypse that they make fun of the entire time; Tyler loves it just for that. They spend time at Tyler’s apartment when it’s empty and down at the bar just off campus and they hang out at the park near the Kappa house when they run out of things to do.

Tonight is one of those nights, where they’ve seen all the movies and they’re too broke for take out or dinner and Frank has his friends over for a jam session at the apartment. So they’re at the park.

It’s dark; the stars above are barely visible through the light pollution and the ground lit up by the lights from the surrounding neighbourhood. They sit on the swings and lazily drift back and forth quietly. 

Tyler watches his sneakers drag throw the stones beneath his foot as Josh talks. Tyler asks him what he wants to do with his life after college. Josh explains that he wants to do something to do with music, playing drums in a band probably, but other than that he’s unsure. 

“What about you?” He asks, face half illuminated by the glow of an old orange streetlamp.

Tyler considers his answer for a moment before shrugging. “I’m not really sure. I mean I play basketball… a lot. And it’s cool I guess, I can’t really do much else. My parents want me to go pro, or something like that, but I don’t know. I guess… I guess I’m just trying to figure myself out right now. Like, what’s my purpose? Why am I here? I’m just not sure I want to spend the rest of my life shooting hoops if I’m going to do nothing else.” 

Tyler looks up to see Josh giving him this look. It’s sort of like a half smile, kind of bemused, but like he’s considering something.

“What?” Tyler asks.

“You always stuff that like… you’re really unpredictable, but super predictable at the same time, I’ve never really heard anyone talk the way you do,” Josh explains.

Tyler ducks his head and kicks at the ground a little more. “Sorry if I’m not making any sense,” He says to his feet.

“No it- it makes perfect sense,” Josh says. “You make sense. You’re…”

He trails off quietly. Tyler looks up again and sees Josh is looking at his own feet now. 

“I’m what?”

“Perfect,” Josh mumbles.

Tyler’s face heats up like a match being lit. He doesn’t know what to say to that.

“Sorry if that was too much,” Josh says quickly. 

“No- no—it wasn’t,” Tyler stammers out. 

“It’s just…” Josh continues after a pause. “I really like you Tyler. Like, _really_ like you.”

Tyler thinks maybe he should be over the butterflies in his stomach by now when it comes to Josh, but Josh’s words make them flutter. Tyler feels like if he were to open his mouth now one hundred different colours and wings would float out instead of words. He’s not sure what to say.

“Did that freak you out?” Josh asks with concern. “I didn’t mean to like… I know we’re… I know we haven’t been dating that long.”

Tyler thinks about what Josh is saying. He’s right, technically they’ve only been dating for about two weeks, but they’ve known each other a little over a month. Tyler’s spent more time with Josh in the last two weeks than he has with Jenna this entire semester and there’s something odd about the idea of not being around him. For some incomprehensible reason Tyler can’t remember what it was like not seeing Josh every day.

Josh is still rambling about how he didn’t mean to freak Tyler out when Tyler manages to blurt out “I really like you too!”

Josh stops and looks at him. Tyler looks back, incredibly aware of how red his face is. 

Before Tyler knows it Josh is up and stood in front of him, leaning towards him, and Tyler lets go of the swing to reach towards him. However, instead of running his hands through Josh’s hair, Tyler manages to tip backwards and land awkwardly on the ground with a loud squawk of surprise.

He stares up at the stars in a daze for a moment before Josh pops into his field of vision.

“Are you okay?” He bites his lip. 

Tyler glares at him accusingly. “You’re trying not to laugh!” 

“No I’m not,” Josh’s voice strains. 

“You so are!” 

Josh snickers, and then laughter bursts out of him as if he can’t help it.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” He wheezes. “It’s just… your face. Oh God.” 

He extends a hand to help Tyler up. Tyler glares and instead of using the offered arm to pull himself up he pulls Josh down with him. The surprised sound Josh makes is totally worth getting winded when he lands on him.

There’s a beat of silence before Tyler feels Josh shaking from laughter and suddenly they’re both clutching on to each other absolutely howling. It takes them a while to calm down, every time the laughter dies down they look at each other and start all over again. Eventually Tyler’s sides hurt from giggling so much and he’s breathing hard when they both calm down.

Josh looks at him softly from above with a small smile and suddenly his lips are pressed to Tyler’s. For a moment he’s surprised, but then he shuts his eyes and relaxes into the kiss. Kissing Josh, Tyler discovers, is possibly the best thing he’s ever experienced. Not that he has many other kisses to compare it to, but it’s still stomach-twistingly awesome.

When they break apart Tyler just frowns and pulls Josh back down. The latter laughs a little, but kisses back enthusiastically.

 _So this is making out_ , Tyler thinks. He can definitely get on board with it.

 

* * *

 

 

Kissing is totally awesome, Tyler has decided. He and Josh do it everywhere now, they randomly stop in the street to pull each other in for kisses, they sit on the couch at the Kappa house and kiss (which they’ve now been kicked out of because of it), they sit in Tyler’s car and kiss and so on. 

In fact they’re sat on the couch in Tyler’s apartment making out when Frank walks in and groans loudly.

“That is not what I wanted to come home to,” He announces loudly as the two pull apart to look at him.

Frank’s face has mostly healed since he got beaten up now. There’s still a yellowing bruise around his eye and Tyler knows his arm is sensitive, but he no longer looks like an extra from _Fight Club_.

“Hey Frank,” Tyler greets him cheerfully. “You know Josh, right?”

Frank looks at Josh, eyes narrowing suspiciously... much to Tyler’s confusion.

“Hey!” Josh says brightly. 

“Yeah. Hi,” Frank replies coolly.

Tyler and Josh exchanged equally confused looks before Frank clears his throat and continues. 

“I’m going to study in my room. Shout if you need me,” He eyes Josh warily again for a moment before disappearing to his room.

Tyler frowns.

“What was that about?” Josh asks, looking concerned.

“I have no idea,” Tyler says. Frank’s one of the friendliest guys he knows usually, he’s cool in social situations and likes to talk to anyone who will listen. Tyler has never seen him act like that towards anyone before. 

“Maybe he has a crush on you,” Josh speculates. Tyler shakes his head. 

“He likes someone else.”

“Oh. Hm.”

They both shrug and return to making out. Yeah, Tyler’s definitely into it. 

 

* * *

 

  

Later when Josh has left to study (an hour later than he meant to after many attempts to kiss-convince him into staying longer) Frank corners Tyler in the hallway.

“You need to be careful,” He warns.

“What?” Tyler’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “I know I’m clumsy Frank, but you don’t need to point that out.”

“Not that,” Frank sighs. “With Josh.”

“…Are you trying to give me the safe sex talk?” 

Frank throws up his arms in exasperation and rubs his face. 

“No! I’m trying to tell you I think he might be trouble,” Frank says seriously.

Tyler can’t take him seriously. 

“Josh might be trouble,” He repeats, biting back a giggle.

Frank nods.

“Frank, yesterday Josh apologised to me six times because we knocked teeth when kissing,” Tyler explains. “He’s not exactly a demonic spirit.”

Frank gives him a hard glare. Tyler giggles quietly.

“I’m just saying, you never know the kind of guys he could hang around with… he just seems a bit… I don’t know man. He seems sketchy.” 

Tyler snorts. Josh and sketchy are not exactly two words he’d match together. 

“You’re ridiculous,” He ruffles Franks hair. Frank sighs and punches him lightly in the arm.

“Whatever man. Just be careful.”

“Aren’t I always?” Tyler replies nonchalantly right before walking into the doorframe.

 

* * *

 

When Josh and Tyler next hang out two nights later they visit the bar nearest the Kappa house to get drinks. They’re in the midst of an in depth conversation about Tyler’s nail polish when they’re interrupted by a group of guys excitedly yelling Josh’s name. They turn to see about five young men enter and head straight for them. 

Tyler’s nerves jump. Josh squeezes his hand reassuringly and waves at the guys. They cluster around him, patting him on the back and fist bumping his free hand. One of them steals his hat and puts in on his friend sideways.

The group is loud and Tyler can just tell they’re already slightly drunk. Once they’ve settled down a bit Josh introduces them. 

“Okay so this is Paul, Craig, Aaron, Isaiah and Lucas, they’re pledging for Kappa,” Tyler can’t help the proud note in Josh’s voice. He’s sure he recognises one of the boys, but can’t place him. He knows most of the Kappa pledges vaguely anyway from talking to Patrick, but there’s something off about these guys.

Now he’s sure he’s seen the Paul kid before, he’s average height with floppy brown hair and vibrant blue eyes. For some reason alarm bells are ringing in his head.

“Guys, this is Tyler,” Josh grins. 

“He your boyfriend?” There’s something weird in Paul’s voice. Josh doesn’t seem to notice, he just looks at Tyler awkwardly. Tyler looks away and shuffles slightly. 

“…You guys not had that conversation yet?” The blonde boy – Lucas – asks with a laugh, running his hand through his hair.

“Whoops, sorry,” Paul says, not sounding sorry at all as he jostles Tyler’s arm slightly causing him to splash some of his drink down his leg.

Then it clicked.

 

_Across from them a couple of guys huffed in annoyance at their talking. Tyler looked at them, their costumes were unrecognisable then, but he knew that they were Kappa guys. He’d seen them around the house when visiting Brendon and Patrick before. They were pledges, new and aggressive he knew, and they looked nothing short of pissed as hell about the current situation._

_One of them glared at him. His dark hair flopped into his face, but for some reason it didn’t make him look any less threatening._

_“You a Zeta?” The guy spit at him. Tyler recoiled at the harsh tone._

_“Paul,” Josh said warningly. Tyler was confused for a moment before remembering of course Josh knew him… he’s the Kappa VP._

_“Whatever,” Paul rolled his eyes._

 

“So what brings you guys out tonight?” Josh asks as one of the guys steals his drink to take a quick sip before handing it back. Tyler’s curious to know too, the guys aren’t even old enough to be drinking at a bar… though technically neither are they.

“Oh you know, we’re just chillin’, came to see some of the guys,” Paul shrugs. “Hey, you going to the beach bash this weekend?”

Josh looks at Tyler. 

“I am if Tyler is.” 

The Beach Bash is a tradition for the Greek community at the university. It’s the one day of the year upon which all the frats and sororities gather to have a bonfire, barbeque and bonding experience. It’s always puzzle Tyler how it’s planned in the winter, but he’s grateful that they go to school in such a hot place otherwise they’d be screwed weather-wise. Maybe it’s because the original founders of the Beach Bash knew nobody else would be on the beach at that time. 

Tyler looks back at Josh and shrugs. “Pete’s making me go anyway.” 

“Pete Wentz?” Paul asks.

Tyler nods at him slowly.

“That guy’s a dick,” Paul says loudly to the others. “He’s the reason we got arrested on Halloween.”

Tyler shifts uncomfortably. As if sensing his discomfort Josh squeezes his hand again and clears his throat.

“We gotta go boys, but I’ll uh… see you next Karaoke night.” 

And with that he’s pulling Tyler up and leading him out of the bar.

“Well…” He says awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “That could’ve gone worse.” 

Tyler isn’t so sure about that.

 

* * *

 

 

When Josh drops him off that night he leans in and kisses Tyler deeply. Tyler almost groans in annoyance when he pulls away.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Josh runs a finger down the side of Tyler’s face. 

Tyler can't help but notice how Josh still looks incredible even in the dim light of the grimy hallway. He's a splash of colour next to the gray walls. Tyler thinks he might have fallen too hard.

“Sure,” Tyler smiles and begins rummaging through his pockets to find his keys.

"Oh... and, uh... can I ask you something?" Josh watches him search.

Tyler nods distractedly.

"I was just wondering ifmaybeyouwantedtobemyboyfriend?" Josh's voice cracks slightly.

Tyler freezes, and then looks up again. "What?"

"Do you, uh," Josh scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Do you maybe want to be my boyfriend? I know it's a weird time to ask... it's just I've been thinking about it for a while and the guys earlier reminded me and I like you a lot and I just—"

Tyler cuts him off with a kiss. Josh makes a surprised noise and instantly pulls Tyler closer. They stand there kissing; Tyler's hands in Josh's hair, Josh's around Tyler's waist. Tyler sighs as they pull apart.

"Can I take that as a yes?" Josh smiles.

"Yes," Tyler huffs out a laugh. "Now go before they lock you out."

The Kappas have a rule about knocking after 1am, Tyler knows because he's been the host to Pete crashing on his couch because of it one too many times.

“Okay, I'll text you,” Josh pecks him on the lips and heads back down the hall. 

As Tyler goes to unlock his door he realises his keys aren’t in his pockets.

“Shoot,” He curses before knocking on the door, hoping Frank will still be awake. He tells himself he probably just left them on the counter again. It’s not unusual. One of these days he’s going to lose them if he’s not careful like Frank is always telling him, which would be inconvenient at best considering it has keys to his apartment, car and the Zeta house.

Oh well, he sighs as Frank opens the door looking half asleep and annoyed, he can look for them in the morning.


	7. A sense of doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to crumble and Tyler's losing his belief.

Heading for the Beach Bash involves waking up at six am and being in the car ready for seven. Tyler’s getting a ride with Josh and a couple of other guys after Josh took one look at the tired boy and made the executive decision that making Tyler drive before he was awake was possibly a very bad idea.

He isn’t wrong.

The drive isn’t too long, only a couple of hours, and they watch the sun come up as they go. Tyler might even go as far to say it was a beautiful morning, if he were completely awake and only slightly less grumpy. He calls shotgun before they go and spends the entire trip there holding on to Josh’s spare hand and sending him sleepy smiles from where he lounges next to him. He feels kind of like a teenager again, made of lust and fantastical imagines, and it’s a little disconcerting but not overall bad.

Tyler remembers exactly why he doesn’t enjoy the beach when they get there. There is sand _everywhere_. It’s on the ground, it’s in his hair and his shoes, and he hasn’t even taken his clothes off yet. And then there’s that…

Taking his clothes off in front of Josh?

Now that’s an idea that’s a little nerve-wracking to say the least.

He shakes himself awkwardly for being ridiculous, it’s not like he’s about to get naked or anything… unless Jenna suggest skinny-dipping again like last year. But after the awful amount of people who got colds after that he’s not sure they’ll repeat the mistake.

The beach is vast and empty. Tyler watches as the waves rushing up and down the beach quietly. It’s getting surprisingly warm… not warm enough for him to be convinced to go swimming yet though, much to Jenna’s annoyance. Everybody arrives at relatively the same time, but there are a couple of drifters who left late and turn up after everyone else has claimed the beach front with their towels and belongings.

About twenty feet away from where everybody’s setting their stuff some of the Omegas are already building a tower of driftwood to burn later on that evening. Tyler’s actually quite excited for the campfire, he knows that Jenna has at least three bags of marshmallows with her and he is prepared to roast and eat them until he explodes.

“Don’t explode on to me alright,” Josh laughs when Tyler voices this out loud. It’s amazing how his boyfriend’s laugh still manages to make him feel all tingly, Tyler thinks. _His boyfriend_. Oh he is so glad he can call him that now.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d mind, Josh,” Jenna giggles from behind them, giving them both a wink. Tyler can feel a blush creeping up his neck and he ducks his head. Josh just laughs and when Jenna walks away he leans in.

“Nah, I wouldn’t,” He whispers.

Tyler is now red enough to fit in perfectly with a family of tomatoes and never have them suspect a thing.

It’s not like he’s averted to the idea of sex with Josh, he isn’t _at all_ , and in fact he’s had some very frustrating nights recently. His dreams have been what can be described as alarmingly chaotic and very sexually charged, but he’s just not sure about it yet… he’ll have to ask Jenna later.

“Hey Tyler, c’mon man!” He turns to see Josh and a couple of the Kappa guys holding a collection of surfboards and gesturing at him to join them.

Oh dear, this isn’t going to end well at all.

 

* * *

 

Josh tries to teach Tyler to surf. Key word of that sentence being _tries_. He does not succeed. After about half an hour of trying to get Tyler stood up on the board they call it quits, deciding everybody is much safer with Tyler’s feet firmly on land instead. This does not bother Tyler at all; in fact he’s overjoyed when Josh suggests they go back to beach to sunbathe for a while. He’s especially delighted when Josh strips off his wet shirt to dry off.

Tyler very much enjoys the view. He pretends he doesn’t know what Josh is talking about when he accuses him of checking him out with a grin. Instead he slowly smiles and shrugs, and for once it’s Josh who goes red.

It gets better when Josh asks him to rub sunblock on his back. Tyler is totally and one hundred per cent up for that. It gets even better when Josh lets out a near pornographic moan as Tyler runs his hands over his skin, even if Tyler does have to cross his legs to save himself from any embarrassment.

Jenna watches the whole exchange from afar, giving Tyler a big thumbs up and a cheeky wink when he glances over at her. He rolls his eyes. She’s lying on a towel sunbathing with Hayley and the Omega president, Debby. Tyler’s met Debby once, last year at one of the Omega parties, but he likes her. He also knows she’s one of Josh’s very best friends and getting on her bad side won’t get him anywhere, so when she flashes him a wide smiles he allows himself to send a sheepish grin back.

 

* * *

 

They lie in the sun together for hours, and then Josh goes with a bunch of Kappa guys to the beach shacks nearby to grab ice cream. Tyler declines when offered the chance to go, he’s not very hungry at the moment and this is his chance to speak to Jenna.

He waits until the guys are out of site to flop down next to his best friend in the sand. She laughs and pokes him in the side.

“That was a deep sigh,” She says.

“I have many things to sigh about,” Tyler replies.

It’s Jenna’s turn to sigh at this. “What’s wrong?”

“I… sex.”

Jenna looks at him in bewilderment for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“Well that’s my cue to leave,” Hayley says with a laugh and pushes herself off the ground. She disappears quickly, Tyler assumes she found her boyfriend hidden somewhere amongst the cluster of people dancing by an old beaten up boom box.

“What about sex?” Jenna asks with a straight face when she’s calmed down. 

“What– well, what do I do?”

“Ty… you do know how sex works right?”

“Of course I do!”

“Good, I thought for a moment all the lectures our moms gave us on the importance of consent and condoms had been erased by college for a minute there.”

“Shut up. I mean, like… I don’t know how to be… y’know…”

“Sexy?” Jenna guesses. 

Tyler nods slowly. 

“Oh, Ty,” She smiles and pats his arm. “I don’t think it matters. Josh obviously likes you as you are now. You know… uncoordinated and adorable.”

Tyler looks at her unimpressed.

“You know for a best friend you don’t give very best friend-like advice.”

“You’re an idiot,” She says fondly. “But okay. You have to wait until the moment is right okay, trust me you’ll know when it is. It should just happen, y’know? I mean it’s not going to be perfect. It’s always awkward at first, you’ll be fine, you do awkward great!”

Tyler emits a sigh deeper than any that has graced his lungs before.

“I’m kidding!” She says. “But really, you’ll know okay? You don’t have to plan it second for second, just maybe set aside some stuff in case it happens spontaneously… or plan a night for it? Only if you’re ready though, and he is. Obviously.” 

“Stuff?”

“You know… lube and condoms and… anything else you’re into?”

“Oh,” Tyler’s face burns. 

“I’m sure you guys will take it easy the first time,” Jenna snickers. 

He nods, only slightly reassured. “What if I do it wrong?” 

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Really? Have you met me? Because I seem to have a habit of doing the impossible by accident.”

“Good point,” She bites her lip and looks out at the ocean. “Maybe ask one of the guys… ask Pete?”

“Why would I ask Pete?” Tyler frowns in confusion. What would Pete

know about this. 

“Oh honey,” Jenna pats him again. “Never grow up.” 

Tyler doesn’t feel any more informed than before the conversation.

 

* * *

 

It takes a good half an hour for them to get the fire started, but once it’s going everyone gathers around it looking content. Darkness fills the sky around them and they huddle in blankets and towels, pressed up against each other in huddles of warm bodies roasting marshmallows and making loud jokes.

Tyler laughs loudly as Pete gets up screaming about the sanctity of his marshmallow and heads for the see, the stick he’s been roasting with alight on the end and dripping melted candy everywhere. He’s wrapped in a large blanket with Josh, and he won’t lie it feels like home. It’s awesome. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now. 

Occasionally Josh leans over to make a quiet joke in Tyler’s ear, or runs his fingers along Tyler’s free arm, and at one point he moves close and presses a light kiss to Tyler’s cheeks. Wolf whistles fill the air from where Pete and Brendon are sat watching them cheerily, they’re a little drunk and the flames light up the shining metal cans abandoned by their feet.

There’s a pleasantly tipsy buzz in the air, most people having had a beer or two, but Tyler remained loyally sober with Josh and the other drivers. It’s all lovely and warm, the fire lighting up the beach, and the peaceful hum of chatter filling the air around them. That is, it’s fine until the fight starts. 

It’s over almost as quickly as it begun, but the sound of a fist connecting with a face snaps the peaceful atmosphere in half like a smashed glass and suddenly there’s yelling and screaming and people being pulled off one another.

It’s a group of young Kappa and Zeta pledges, bloody and bruised and spitting angrily at each other as Pete and the older boys hold them back. Josh is up in a split second, pulling a rowdy Kappa boy away from the fight. He looks angry as hell, and Tyler’s strangely turned on by it.

 _Stop it_ , he tells his dick. _Now is not the time to jump Josh, no matter how much I want to rip his clothes off and tell him to fuck me right here and now._

He pauses for a moment. Wow, that came out of nowhere.

 

* * *

 

 

The ride home is awkward and tense. Anger radiates off Josh in waves, and it’s weird for Tyler who’s never seen as anything but the laid back funny guy with bright hair. He’s now a mess of half dried curls and unnecessary road rage. It’s uncomfortable.

The boys in the back weren’t involved in the fight, but they were forced to explain what happened anyway. They’d sat back and watched as the others went at each other and hadn’t done anything. That seemed to bother Josh almost as much as the actual violence did. 

It had started when a group of Zetas struck up conversation about the prank war, though it was supposed to be a break from that today, and had been crowing about the genius of Operation Close Shave. Apparently some of the older Kappas had been sore about that, after a few belongings ended up foam-soaked and in disrepair. Tyler had personally made sure Pete took care of that. They’d replaced everything, so Tyler wasn’t sure why they were annoyed and why they were rubbing off on the pledges so much. Apparently the physical fight had broken out when one of the Zeta pledges brought up Halloween.

The Kappa kids were not happy about being arrested, Tyler learns, apparently a few of them had been in serious trouble over it.

It’s worse when they return home. Josh is forced to turn the car around and drop him off when Tyler receives a phone call from Pete telling him to get himself to the Zeta house right away, it’s an emergency.

They arrived to an open door and an unpleasant sight that made Tyler’s stomach twist. Upon crossing the threshold he instantly notices two things:

 

  1. **The Zetas are stood around looking horror struck and extremely upset.**
  2. **They’re upset because their entire house is _completely wrecked._**



 

Tyler gazes at the destruction in disbelief. The walls are covered in graffiti, and… shaving foam? Oh lord. The furniture has been tipped, the television is smashed, the entire contents of the fridges has been emptied over the kitchen floor, magazines and books are lying torn and strewn across the hall. It looks like somebody took a sledgehammer to the staircase.

Once they’re all mostly over the shock of it, Pete’s spoken to the police and they’ve cleaned most of the debris up they are all wiped.

Tyler makes a phone call to Jenna, and the Deltas offer the guys a place to stay the night.

 

* * *

 

Tyler stays that night too. They call a meeting in the living room and somehow they manage to cram the majority of the Zeta house residents and the Delta girls in the one room.

The weird thing is they’ve done this before, but it’s lacking its usual mischievous atmosphere and the meeting lacks any humour whatsoever. It’s awful.

“It had to have been an inside job,” Mikey says loudly.

“I thought you said the Kappa symbol was painted on the wall?” Hayley replies solemnly. 

Mikey nods and Pete chimes in, “Yeah, but the windows and doors were all locked when we got home. There was no chance they broke in.” 

“So they had a key,” Jenna says flatly.

Tyler’s heart sinks. His mind flashes back to the night he lost his keys. The image of the silver key engraved with a large Zeta symbol feels like it’s burning the insides of his memories.

“They had a key,” Pete confirms. “Or someone let them in.”

“But nobody was home,” Tyler says quietly. Everybody looks at him. 

Pete shrugs. “We have our answer then.”

There’s a moment of heavy silence before one of the guys speaks up again, it’s Aaron, a quiet but nice boy that pledged last year.

“You know they took our trophy too right?” 

The Greek trophy, Zeta’s Greek trophy… something awarded to the best frats at the university. Tyler was well aware of how proud all the guys are of it, Pete talks about how is represents the values of their brotherhood and how important it is as a symbol of their accomplishments all the time. They polish it a lot, Tyler knows because he hates the smell of the cleaner they use.

There’s a collective noise of upset. It’s obviously a personal hit. 

“Somebody had to have been real mad,” Hayley says. “What if it wasn’t the Kappas though, it could’ve been someone framing them? It doesn’t seem like something Patrick or Josh would do. And they were at the beach tonight.”

Pete frowns. “It could’ve been an individual’s decision.”

“Wait… so you haven’t asked them yet?” Jenna asks in surprise. 

Pete shrugs. “I texted Pat, he never replied.”

Tyler sits for a second frowning, and then pulls out his phone to check his messages. He texted Josh about it too, right after he found out what happened.

“Josh never replied either…”

There’s an uncomfortable silence before Pete lets out a deep breath and rubs his eyes. It’s three am, the Zetas have nowhere to live for the moment and it’s now pretty much confirmed that the Kappa presidents most likely knew about the attack. 

“Just because they didn’t reply doesn’t mean they knew,” Hayley tries to argue half-heartedly. She doesn’t sound very convinced herself actually.

“They would be here,” Mikey says. “They would be here finding out what happened if they didn’t know.”

“I just don’t believe they could do that,” Jenna says. “It doesn’t sound likely-“ 

There’s a knock at the door. To everybody’s relief one of the Delta girls pulls it open to reveal a panting Josh and Patrick. 

“We couldn’t find you at the house!” Patrick wheezes.

“My car stalled,” Josh explains, looking right at Tyler as he says it. There’s something in his eyes that makes Tyler uncomfortable. The car had not had a single problem when they’d been returning from the beach.

Josh and Patrick tell everyone they don’t know who’s responsible, but they’re going to find out. They tell them they’ll help fix up the house, put the prank war on hold and even offer accommodation for some of the guys.

Tyler can’t help but notice the guilt washing through his gut, and he can’t ignore the knowledge that Josh was the only one with him when his keys disappeared. He tries to push the thought to one side, it’s ridiculous… Josh is…

Josh is a good person. It’s the first fact Tyler could have told you about him. Josh is a good guy with morals and respect for his friends. He would never go that far for a stupid prank war. He just wouldn’t.

Tyler tries to pretend the cloud of doubt filling his body doesn’t exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Follow me on my tumblr and let me know what you think --- spaghettifiasco.tumblr.com
> 
>  
> 
> <3 xo


	8. Stressed Øut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for unlitbec for being so nice to me on Twitter.

The rain that’s been threatening for weeks now is slowly trickling down the car window blurring the sight of soaked sidewalks and grey skies. Tyler watches as a stray raindrop slowly makes its way into an existent stream running across the windshield. He can’t help but note how it reflects his mood so perfectly.

A deep sigh is released from his chest as he runs a hand throw his hair. He doesn’t know what to do, he’s stressed out and guilt-ridden and he’s not even sure if he has any reason to be yet. Part of his mind is screaming Josh would never take part in something that could harm someone, another part is raining doubt over the cornfields of his mind and the last tiny part is telling him he’s in too deep whichever answer it is.

Tyler’s never had a hard time trusting people. He’s learned that if you’re nice they’re nice back, but when it comes to relationships he’s completely inexperienced. The minutes tick by, the digital clock flicking from one number to the next as they go, and he still doesn’t know what to do. He hasn’t mentioned his missing keys to the guys, the only other person who knows he doesn’t have them is Frank because he has to keep letting him into the apartment after class, and Frank thinks what Tyler first thought – that he’d lost his keys. Now Tyler’s not so sure.

The melancholic sound of the rain pattering down on hard concrete grows louder as the passenger side door is open. Tyler’s head snaps up to see Josh climbing in with a grin. He’s not sure why he feels so surprised; he’s been waiting for Josh after all… all this mess is just creating doubt around everything right now. It’s uncomfortable and confusing.

Tyler still doesn’t know what to do.

“Hey,” Josh leans over and gives him a peck on the cheek.

“Hey,” Tyler responds quietly. His heart clenches slightly at the sight of his boyfriend. He’s so beautiful with the sparkle of joy in his eyes, his hair flattened by water and the slightly waterlogged red shirt he wears that lights up the interior of the car. He’s like a firework, or a glittering pinwheel of colour, but Tyler can’t help comparing him to a fire alarm that interrupts the peace of an evening inside.

Josh is a red alert, and Tyler never noticed it before. Or maybe he did, and he just ignored it. He remembers the pull of attraction he felt towards Josh when he first saw him. Maybe it’s because he’s different. It’s possible that different isn’t such a good thing anymore.

“So what do you want to do today?” Josh asks, strapping himself in.

“Uh…” Tyler blanks. He hasn’t been paying attention to much for the past few hours. “I don’t mind, whatever you want I guess.”

Josh gives him an odd look, squinting in concern and reaching out to take Tyler’s free hand. “You okay, Ty?”

“What? Yeah, yeah… I’m fine. Just tired. Don’t worry about me,” Tyler shrugs half-heartedly.  
Josh doesn’t look any less concerned, but he turns back to face the front again anyway.

“Well, I guess the rain rules out anything outside,” Josh smiles. Tyler laughs awkwardly. He receives another odd look from his boyfriend.

“So… movies? Or we could just hang out at my place… or yours if you want?” Josh suggests.

“Sure… whatever.”

Josh looks troubled, but his eyes light up after a second and a goofy grin creeps across his face as he drops Tyler’s hand to rummage through his pockets. Tyler watches, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion, he has no idea what Josh is doing.

“So like…” He frowns for a minute, digging deeper into his jeans before letting out a cry of triumph and pulling something out. The something jingles quietly. “I found these. Look familiar? You must’ve left them at the house; they were down the side of our couch.”

Tyler stares at his keys. His mind is twisting, screaming, and guilt takes it upon itself to attack. Josh has his keys. Josh says he left them at the Kappa house. Tyler did not go to the Kappa house the night he lost those keys. He knows he left the house with them before they went to the bar. He locked the door behind him.

It is not possible that he left his keys on Josh’s couch.

“Thanks,” He smiles weakly and reaches out to take them. Josh stops him.

“Uh uh, no. I gotta show you something first,” He smiles, seemingly ignorant to Tyler’s internal confusion.

“What?” Tyler says stupidly.

“Look,” Josh holds out the keys, displaying a specific key chain.

It’s a new addition. It’s a shining depiction of a sunny beach, painted carefully on to the thick metal of the base, and across it is printed South Beach. It’s the beach bash on a tiny key ring, it’s the memory of a warm night full of contentedness and close affection, it’s the night it all went wrong.

Tyler loves it. Tyler thinks he might _love_ Josh. Tyler feels sick.

“South beach,” Tyler states slowly.

“I got it for you on the trip,” Josh beams. “I thought you’d like the art. Pretty cool for tourist trash, right?”

Tyler nods slowly and takes it, turning it over in his fingers.

“I was going to give it to you when we got home, but uh…”

“The house was trashed,” Tyler says flatly.

The odd look is back.

“Have I done something wrong?” Josh actually sounds a little hurt.

“No!” Tyler says too quickly. “No I like it. I love it. Thank you.”

He pockets the keys and turns back to the steering wheel. His spare car keys hang loosely in the ignition looking cold and bare without key chains. Tyler feels exactly the same, even if he is being a little dramatic about it.

“You’d tell me if I had… right?” Josh asks, taking his hand again and running his thumb across Tyler’s.

Tyler nods and clears his throat. “Movies?” He says and starts the car without waiting for an answer.

 

* * *

 

 

**[Chapter within a chapter: In a different light]**

Frank loves living with Tyler. Tyler is great. Tyler is a good friend, he’s clean and he’s quiet, and he doesn’t demand too much from Frank. Tyler’s friends however? They were a different story. It’s not that Frank dislikes them, in fact he’s friends with most of them too, but they’re loud and there’s a lot of them.

They’re also homeless at the moment though, so Frank is going to withhold his sighs of desperation and not complain about the lack of space that comes with housing several frat boys. Because that’s what good people do. They smile and offer blankets to homeless college kids.

Still, it doesn’t mean he has to be comfortable with the fact there are eight guys crashing in his living room and eating all his food. However, he’s perfectly content minding his own business and leaving them to their own devices.

Until…

“I don’t understand how they got so aggressive,” One of the guys, Mikey’s friend… Ray, Frank thinks, pipes up.

Frank’s just making a pot of coffee when the conversation strikes up; it catches his interest almost instantly.

“I know right,” Pete sighs from where he’s lounging on the couch. “I mean, they’re led by Patrick. President Patty, Pat-Attack. He’s the sweetest guy ever, how can they possibly-“

“Yeah okay Pete we get it,” Another guy cuts him off with a roll of his eyes. “Patrick’s an angel, Patrick’s so sweet, Patrick’s voice is out of this world blah blah blah. This isn’t about Patrick right now. It doesn’t matter how nice he and Josh are, they’ve obviously either lost control of their pledges or they’re in on it.”

“The Kappas?” Frank interjects without really meaning to. They all turn to him.

“Yeah,” Mikey confirms. “They’re the ones who trashed the house. Or we’re pretty sure they are anyway.”

“What makes you think so?” Frank asks curiously, climbing over the back of the couch and seating himself between Pete and Mark.

“They wrote it on our walls,” Mark says, tone filled with anger. “We don’t know which ones though.”

“And you think the presidents are in on it…?”

“Well, we’re not sure right now. It doesn’t really seem to be a very Patrick thing to do, and Josh is really nice so…”

“Why d’you ask?” Mikey wonders. “You’re not usually this interested in frat events.”

“I…” They’re all looking at him curiously. “The Kappas are douchebags.”

Nobody says anything for a minute; they just look at Frank in surprise.

“Explain,” Pete says.

Frank hated walking alone in the dark. It’s not that he was scared or anything, the streetlights were bright enough and he had a phone in case of emergency, but it was so incredibly lonely outside at night. This part of town lacked the usual rushing of cars and luminous traffic lights. There were no bustling clubs booming out bass beats, no bars spilling light out on to the curb… no buskers or street vendors. Frank kind of missed New Jersey, not that where he came from was much busier than here, but at least he could get to New York when he felt too isolated. Out here he was by himself.

He was texting Gerard when it happened. Maybe that’s why he seemed to completely miss the sound of footsteps creeping up behind him, missed the boisterous laughter and shadows falling across the path lit by streetlamps.

All he’d wanted to do was run to the store, grab some snacks for games night with the guys and go home. He did not anticipate being knocked to the ground.

Pain bloomed across his cheek and pain stabbed at his side. He heard slurs and names being called around him, the smell of alcohol wafted up his nose. He clenched his fist and tried to fight his way back to his feet but to no avail. When he finally gave in he opened his eyes to see someone crouched before him.

A guy with floppy brown hair and a nasty smile snarled at him. Beer breathe invaded the air. Frank just gasped for breath and hoped he wasn’t bleeding. He refused to look weak in the face of his attackers.

“That’s what you get,” The guy hisses. “That’s what Zetas get.”

Frank didn’t remember much after that before he blacked out, but he did remember the jackets they all wore. Emblazoned with the Kappa symbol. They were too old to be brothers, obviously just pledges, and Frank was pretty sure he’d seen then around before. As they walked away he heard “Josh” and “awesome” and a whole bunch of other words he wasn’t really interested in hearing.

 

A breath of air leaves Frank’s lungs when he finishes hurriedly explaining to the guys what happened. They stare at him in obvious shock. Frank begins to wonder if he should’ve said anything until Pete speaks.

“This is out of control.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tyler gets home to a room full of solemn looking frat boys and Frank offering him a cup of coffee.

“You might want to sit down,” He says.

Tyler looks at the all in confusion, but does what they say anyway. There’s a weird sort of tension in the air and Tyler’s never felt less comfortable in his own apartment before.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

Well that was a lie, it was obvious that there was something going on.

Pete coughs awkwardly and leans forward. “We need to talk to you about something.”

Tyler thinks this feels like an intervention.

“This feels like an intervention,” Tyler says unsurely.

Nobody denies this. Tyler sips his coffee, eyes darting around awkwardly. He feels intensely uncomfortable. He can feel his keys heavy in his pocket. What if they know? What if they think it was him?

“It’s about Josh,” Tyler’s heart sinks.

“What about Josh?” He asks hoarsely. He’s pretty sure he knows what they’re going to say.

Several people cough uncomfortably. Mark and Mikey are looking anywhere but at Tyler. Frank shuffles awkwardly in his seat.

Maybe he doesn’t.

“Well…?” Tyler narrows his eyes to the room.

There’s a pause and then…

“We think he’s playing you!” Mark blurts. Two of the guys punch him on the arm with hisses of “Mark!”

This is not what Tyler expected.

“What?” He puts his coffee down on the table.

“We, um…” Frank scratches the back of his neck. “We think Josh might have something to do with the recent… problems…. between the frats.”

“What do you know about Paul Watson?” Pete asks.

“The pledge?” Tyler guesses. Pete nods.

Tyler shrugs. “I don’t know… he’s friends with Josh and a bunch of the other pledges. He’s one of the most active kids pledging.”

They all exchange looks that Tyler doesn’t understand. He thinks there’s some pity in there somewhere. Tyler feels corned and alone all of a sudden.

“Can you guys just tell me what’s going on, please?” Tyler asks, feeling slightly pathetic about it.

Pete takes a deep breath. “You’re really close to me. Not just me… all the Zeta dudes, you’re like… you’re like one of our closest friends who isn’t in the brotherhood. You help us out with Zeta business, you keep us safe and you’re a good prank planner…”

“Almost like an honorary Zeta,” Mikey offers. The boys nod.

“…And that’s kind of obvious to anyone who sees you with us,” Pete continues. “When you first met Josh you were helping us execute Kiss My Water… and you came to the Halloween Bash and you spend time with the Deltas and you’re really involved in our events. So much so that even Frank is kind of associated with us.”

“What’s your point?”

Pete nudges Frank. He sits up straighter and clears his throat.

“You know when I got beat up?” Tyler nods. “And I said I didn’t know which frat boys did it? Well… I kind of did, but I didn’t figure out names until now. I just remember hearing them talk about… about Josh. It was Paul Watson and his friends, you know… the pledges?”

“It seems that the Kappa pledges weren’t too happy about being arrested,” Mikey explains. “They think it’s our fault because it was our party and Pete refused to turn the music down when the neighbours asked… to the point that they called the cops.”

“So the Kappas have been trying to get back at us,” Mark chimes in.

“We figure they attacked Frank because they saw him pick you and Josh up from the station and thought he was a Zeta.”

“And they knew I was close to you,” Frank says. “And Josh obviously knew that. And He’s close with the pledges. Patrick said he’s been initiating them and hanging out with them and stuff.”

“And you being so close to us and all… it kind of makes you an easy target,” Pete finishes.

They look at him. Tyler looks back in confusion. It takes a minute for him to process what they’re saying, and then it clicks.

“You– you think,” He takes a shaky breath. “You think Josh is using me.”

There’s a pregnant pause. The air is twice as tense as it was when Tyler came home. No one is looking at him now. Tyler has his doubts about Josh, but not once had he considered Josh might have been using him to get close to the Zetas. Hurt riles up in his chest, claws at his ribs and bites at his heart. He looks up to meet Pete’s sorry looking eyes.

The pity makes him snap.

“You think I’m not good enough for Josh?” He says coolly.

“What? No! That’s not what we’re saying. It’s just he’s really different from you, Ty. He’s-“ Pete splutters.

“Attractive? Popular? A frat boy?” Tyler guesses. “Oh I’m sorry I forgot, anyone who’s not in a brotherhood isn’t good enough right? I mean, I know I’m not the best at socialising, but I do actually have some likeable traits!”

“Tyler!”

“ _Fuck you_ ,” Tyler spits and stands up quickly to head for the door.

“Ty, wait!” Frank tries to block him from leaving. Tyler pushes him aside and wrenches the door open angrily. He’s out and down the hall as quickly as he can. He ignores the sound of his friends shouting his name.

 

* * *

 

 

Tyler sits in the Delta’s kitchen while Jenna busies herself with making him coffee. He’s still fuming, but a little less mad.

“Can you believe them?” He rests his head in his hands.

Jenna says nothing. She just stirs the coffee quietly and doesn’t meet Tyler’s eyes. He doesn’t notice at first.

“I mean I know I’m kind of awkward, but I’m not that unattractive, right? Like I’m more than my friendship connections.”

Jenna hums in agreement.

“Gosh, they’re just such… ugh,” Tyler rubs his hands over his face. Jenna is still stirring the coffee. He looks up at her.

“They were dicks… right?” He asks slowly, watching her face.

She stares guiltily into the coffee cup.

“Jenna?”

“It’s just,” Jenna sighs. “They have a point, Ty.”

“…”

“…”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t overreact, okay,” Jenna places the cup in front of him. “It’s just like… guys like Josh? They’re not– they don’t… you’re not usually their type.”

“So because I’m not tall, blonde and beautiful I’m not good enough?”

Jenna flinches.

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“You and Josh are two completely different people, okay? You’re a quiet, awkward kind of guy. He’s more of a loud, jock type, he’s–“

“Too hot for me,” Tyler stands up violently, knocking his chair back as he goes. “Yeah, I get it.”

He’s getting sick of hearing his friends call his name now.

 

* * *

 

He ends up alone in the park. It’s dark, and damp and cold. The streetlights don’t quite reach the swing set and one of them is flickering ominously in the background as if it’s unsure whether it can turn on or not.

Tyler’s feet drag across the ground slowly as he swings himself gently back and forth. In his hand he holds his keys, turning them over and over in his fingers, and the South Beach key ring stares up as him coldly.

The darkness drains the beach picture of colour. It’s just a freezing lump of metal in his hand now. The dank smell of rain invades his nose and a cold breeze runs through the air, brushing at Tyler’s cheeks and biting at his nose. It’s quiet, and it’s lonely, and Tyler wants nothing more than to stop thinking.

But he can’t.

He can’t stop thinking about the fact that Josh only asked for his number at the grocery store, not the day they met. He can’t stop thinking about how he didn’t text him immediately and he didn’t ask him out, how he didn’t kiss him at the party and how he barely knew Tyler when he started talking to him. He can’t not think about the cool metal in his hand and the high chances of Josh stealing his keys and the fact that Josh is the kind of guy who could have anyone.

But he also can’t ignore the fact that Josh saved him from cleaning up the water after that first disastrous prank. He helped him tidy up the cereal boxes in the store and asked for his number. He listened to Tyler’s life story on Halloween and returned the favour. He stuck with him even after he dropped spaghetti all down his front and out of the dozens of people he could date if he wanted he chose Tyler.

**He chose Tyler.**

But was that because he likes him or because it made things easier?

**He had every chance to find out about every prank and he never asked.**

He also never asked about Frank’s injuries.

**He initiated the official relationship.**

He lied about his car breaking down.

Whether he likes Tyler or not Tyler knows it doesn’t make a difference, he realises this as he stares at the cold steel beach in his hand, Josh knows something. He knows that the Kappas are involved.

And why would he like Tyler in the first place? Tyler is awkward and clumsy and sarcastic. He drops things and attracts weird looks and says the wrong thing. He doesn’t know how dating works and he prefers spending time playing basketball or writing to going to parties.

Meanwhile Josh is attractive and funny and lovely. He has a billion friends, finds talking to people easy and he’s good at everything/ He’s so beautiful it hurts Tyler’s chest and he has the ability to make him laugh so hard he cries.

And Tyler is so so into him.

Tyler only realises he’s crying when a hot tear rolls down his cheek and splashes on to his fingers. Shakily he detaches the key ring from his set of keys. It takes him a moment of fumbling to free it, but as soon as he does he looks at it for a second before throwing it as hard as he can away from himself.

His heart hurts so much it feels like it’s tearing.

Tyler doesn’t know what to do.


	9. DIY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Break ups, DIY and missed messages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my clique friends on twitter <3

Tyler’s ringtone becomes the theme song of his life, but he never picks up. He spends the first few days after disposing of the key-ring in bed, avoiding Frank and his friends, and ignoring his phone. After that he starts going to class again, throws himself into basketball practise with as much force as he can, and concentrates solely on his grades. He still doesn’t pick up the phone.

Frank tries to apologise multiple times, but Tyler’s very good at shutting people down when he needs to and he doesn’t exactly feel like talking to his ‘friends’ right now. Jenna tries coming around to ‘talk sense into him’ and he closes the door in her face. Pete sits outside is bedroom for three hours one night trying to convince Tyler to come out and talk to him, but to no avail. 

Tyler needs some time to lick his wounds in peace. They already sting enough without being reopened by arguments. After about a week of holding his cold shoulder to the sky, Tyler finally relents and allows Frank to make him a cup of coffee after he wakes up.

He pretends he doesn’t see the relief flood into Frank’s smile.

 

* * *

 

After that he slowly begins to socialise with his friends again. He turns his phone off completely, and uses the apartment landline to call his mom in the week. Once his classes and practise are over, and on the weekend, Tyler starts helping the Zeta House fix up their broken home. They clean out the downstairs, buy new furniture and repaint. There’s damage done to the floor, the stairs are still smashed and slightly danger to go near, and they reckon it’ll take a few weeks before everything is completely back to normal. But at least they’re all working together.

Pete reinitiates the prank war after the first coat of paint has covered the living room. It surprises most of the Zetas, annoys some of them and baffles the Kappas. Or so Tyler hears. He spends one night sat in the Zeta house kitchen listening to Patrick and Pete argue about it until Patrick storms out of the door in angry defeat. Tyler doesn’t know why Pete wants to continue with this, especially after so much went wrong, but for some reason he feels more than willing to help him.

He tries to tell himself it has nothing to do with revenge and everything to do with being a good friend.

It’s like the intensity on the prank-o-meter has been kicked up to eleven now. Tyler throws himself into planning with the guys, and the Kappas have apparently decided to do the same. Tyler becomes the genius behind several pranks, and somehow avoids being the victim of the opposition, which is mildly mystifying. 

Eventually the university speaks up and gets involved. They hand the brotherhoods official warnings to tone it down before someone gets hurt. Tyler still doesn’t turn on his phone or listen to his doorbell ringing.

It’s not really a surprise when he gets cornered on his way to the store to get itching powder. He lets out a small shriek of surprise when he’s pulled to the side of the sidewalk without warning; he can practically hear Frank chastising him for wearing headphones when walking. 

Josh stands before him; arms crossed ad scowling in contempt. Tyler ignores the funny flip his stomach does, and he pushes down the butterflies, then slowly removes his headphones.

“What?” He says bluntly.

Josh stares at him. 

“Are you kidding me?” He asks sounding appalled.

“What do you mean?” Tyler replies nonchalantly.

“Tyler, I haven’t seen you in almost two weeks!” Josh almost shouts. Tyler flinches slightly, but returns his facial setting to passive and cool.

“Oh, really? Hadn’t noticed.” 

He pretends that the look of hurt that flashes across Josh’s face does not make him want to pull the other boy into a hug. 

“Why are you being like this?” Josh demands. “I tried calling you every day, but I just got your answer machine!”

“Phone broke.”

“And you couldn’t answer the door?!” 

“Doorbell broke too.” 

“You couldn’t have come to see me, and maybe let me know that you’re alive?”

“I’m a busy man,” Tyler shrugs.

Josh glares. Tyler stares back, hard and defiant. He refuses to be hurt again.

“What the fuck, Tyler? What have I done to deserve this? When I asked you if I’d done something wrong you told me _no_.” 

Tyler lets out a humourless laugh and wraps his arms around himself. “Like you care.”

“Of course I care! I’m your boyfriend!”

Tyler looks at the ground. 

“…Tyler?” 

“You’re not my boyfriend anymore,” Tyler replies quietly. 

“…”

“…” 

“You can’t just end it with someone without telling them.” 

“I thought you would’ve figured it out from me, y’know… not talking to you!” 

“Tyler?” Josh’s voice softens with hurt. Tyler’s heart feels like his heart is cracking all over again. “Tell me what I did. You’re being a dick.”

Frustration bubbles up in his chest.

“You know what you did,” Tyler practically screams at him. 

“No I don’t!” Josh yells back. “If you’d just fucking tell me maybe I could fix it!”

“No! No, there’s no coming back from this!”

“From _what?!_ ”

“You stole my keys!”

“What, no I–“

“You stole my keys!” Tyler insists. “You stole my keys, and you used me and you _knew_ about those pledges breaking in to the Zeta house! I’ll bet you even know who it was! They beat up Frank, Josh! They trashed the house and you stole my keys and _your car didn’t break down!_ ” Tyler is well aware he now sounds a little hysterical. Okay, a lot hysterical, but he doesn’t really care at this point.

“What are you talking about? You think _I_ planned that attack?!” In the little time Tyler has known Josh he has never seen him look so angry. He’s practically vibrating with rage. “I found your keys on the couch! And I don’t know which pledges broke in, but I have a pretty idea and I’m going to do something about it but in order to do that I need _proof_. And no! My car didn’t break down that night, we were late because I was looking after Patrick because he had a fight with Pete!” 

Tyler stands there stunned.

“So don’t you dare accuse me of being a dick for looking after my friends, especially after you worried the hell out of me and couldn’t be bothered to even let me know why you weren’t around! Do you really think so low of me that I’d actually do that shit? Christ Tyler, I’m a nice guy! I thought you knew that! I thought _you_ were a nice guy!”

Tyler looks at his feet. 

“But apparently I was _wrong_ ,” Josh spits.

There will come a time that Tyler wishes he called after Josh as the boy stormed away. He’ll wish he ran after him, said sorry and kissed it better. He will wish he took his hand and looked into his eyes and told him he messed up, and he wouldn’t again. 

But he doesn’t. 

Tyler stands there, silent and numb with the faint sound of his music trickling through the headphones around his neck. He stands and watches as the boy of his dreams walks away without looking back, a splash of bright colour against the grey sidewalk slowly disappearing. He feels his heart hit the pavement and the blood gush out of the wound from which it was torn.

He tells himself to stop being so dramatic, Josh is just a boy after all, but the guilt taking hold of him is practically unbearable.

He throws up in a bush, and then wipes his mouth and walks home.

Frank doesn’t get an answer when he asks where the groceries are, just watches as Tyler stumbles to his bedroom and shuts the door. 

 

* * *

 

 

When Tyler is next with his friends they are putting together bookcases and painting the second coat of _mysterious dandelion_ (Pete should not be allowed to pick out wall colours ever) on to the wall of the Zeta hallway. The house is bustling with both older brothers and pledges, there’s a hum of chatter and regular bursts on laughter that puncture the air. The atmosphere is all around cheerful, which makes a change in light of recent events, but Tyler’s finding it hard to get involved.

He brushes at the same spot he’s been painting for ten minutes now, and his friends shoot him worried looks when they think he can’t see. He keeps replaying the fight with Josh over and over in his head. He’s caught between hating himself for ruining something that made him happy and hating Josh for making him feel this way.

The guys have asked what happened, Tyler just remembers mumbling incoherently as answer, and they left it alone. He figures Patrick or someone must’ve told them that he and Josh broke up. He still hasn’t spoken to Jenna yet, it still stings that she agreed with the harsh things the guys said, and Tyler isn’t feeling super forgiving yet. He figures he’ll come around in a couple of days, he figures she figures this too and that’s why she hasn’t come banging down his front door.

He’s helping the guys lift a small bookcase into place in the living room when a whirlwind of blonde hair and angry yelling bursts through the door. They drop the case in surprise and Pete yelps loudly as it hits his feet.

“What the-“ Tyler begins, only to be cut off with a rage filled voice.

“Shut up!” Debby yells. Tyler recognises her from the few times he’s met her. She’s nice… usually.

Tyler is stunned into silence along with the rest of the boys in the room. Some of the boys make a hasty exit, but the rest stand and stare in nervous quiet.

“How _dare_ you!” She says hotly, poking a finger into Tyler’s chest. He automatically stumbles back, but she walks forward until his back is against the wall. “How dare you accuse Josh of using you! Who do you think you are?!”

“What’s going on?” Mark mutters quietly to the others. They all shrug.

“You know when he first mentioned he’d met you I thought ‘great, someone who will actually appreciate Josh’ because all Jenna ever talked about was how great you are! But you know what? Turns out you’re not that great! Actually, you’re kind of a dick!” 

Everyone flinches slightly.

“He’s a good guy, a really good guy, and he did not deserve to have you do that to him!” Debby sounds slightly hysterical right now and Tyler won’t be surprised if she punches him.

“I—“ Tyler starts, unsure of what he’s even going to say, but she cuts him off again.

“All he talked about for weeks was you and your stupid smile and your dorky laugh and how you dropped your food all down you on the first date, who does that?! Who?!”

There’s a moment of silence as she draws breath.

“He hasn’t shut up about how much he likes you since you guys met, so you better be damn good at fixing things because if you don’t get your butt to the Kappa House and apologise in the next few hours I am going to _kick your ass_ , Tyler Joseph!”

Tyler can’t lie; he’s never been more terrified of somebody other than his mother as he is right now.

“Fix it!” Debby shrieks, and storms out. 

“Nice to meet you!” Mark calls after her.

  

* * *

  **[A short interlude: Patrick]**

  

Patrick makes his way quickly down the street. He hugs his jacket closer to him for warmth, the cool air of the day biting at his nose and cheeks, and walks just fast enough that he doesn’t shiver to death. 

Stupid Pete for making him come all this way. Stupid Pete for restarting the prank war. Stupid Pete for being so mad at him in the first place.

 _Stupid me for not being able to stay mad at him_ , Patrick thinks.

It started at the beginning of the year - Patrick and Pete hanging out – with the first party of the year. Pete found him sat in the garden by himself, and quickly abandoned the party to join him. He hadn’t meant for it to become a _thing_ , but it got a little out of control. And now Patrick was screwed. Gosh, he hated feelings. What was the point of them?

They’d spent all year so happy and content up until the weeks leading up to the Beach Bash, the night it all went wrong. Patrick regrets getting mad at Pete for telling him he felt, but he’s not sure he’s ready to admit to it. He hadn’t told anyone about it until Josh had come home from dropping Tyler off and found him sat crying on the bathroom floor. Josh had been really nice about it, very supportive, and it reminded Patrick exactly why he’s Vice President.

It’s a shame that things aren’t so great for Josh either at the moment.

Patrick shakes thoughts of all conflict out of his mind. He’s on a mission; make Pete agree to a truce on the war. It’s purely Brotherhood business. Nothing else. Obviously.

Obviously.

He sighs to himself and checks his phone briefly, putting it away again before his hands get too cold; he’s not sure where the hot weather went and he misses it. He misses spending the hot days sprawled out on the lawn laughing with the guys. Everything’s been so cold and tense lately. 

He stops in front of the Zeta house. They’ve fixed up the outside walls with paint, washed off the graffiti, and it looks brand new and cleaner than he’s ever seen it. There are guys floating in and out of the house hauling new furniture and paint cans around, joking together and seemingly carefree. 

He always admired the Zeta brotherhood; they had a more collected way about them than his own frat. As proud as Patrick was to head the Kappas recently he’d been a lot less pleased with their general attitude towards things and the state of affairs they currently had to handle. Never has Patrick seen the brotherhood receive a warning from the university before, but they were involved now because of this stupid prank war, and he’s determined to fix this mess before they can get in more trouble.

Patrick takes a deep breath and heads up the stairs 

He shuffles past some of the Zetas and into the house, they greet him happily with pats on the back and he nods somewhat awkwardly in response and goes to head up the stairs but before he can make his way up to Pete’s room he spots the other president in the living room.

There’s something happening, everyone is quiet, and then Patrick hears the yelling. He sees Tyler practically pinned up against the wall; one of the nicest guys he’s ever met looking helpless and guilty. He thinks he can see Tyler welling up a bit, and the other guys are stood around awkwardly as she screams at him.

Patrick listens to the words she spits out. The weight of them settles on his chest. She’s screaming about Josh, Josh and Tyler, a relationship in ruins. Patrick flinches slightly. It’s another direct result of the stupid prank war gone too far, he knows because Josh told him everything, but he also knows Tyler’s side from what Pete told him.

It can’t be easy to hear your own friends tell you your boyfriend is using you, and it can’t be easy for your boyfriend to accuse you of using you. 

This needs to stop. 

Patrick doesn’t pull Pete aside like he had planned; instead he spins on his heel and heads right back to the Kappa house. He needs to sort this, and he needs to figure out who is responsible for the attack on the house. It’s tearing too many relationships apart. 

Who knew a stupid Frat war could go so far? He longs for the days his only worries were schoolwork and finding shaving foam in his socks. 

Tyler blocks out the rest of the world and sticks his headphones in. He’s at the Zeta house, sat in the kitchen looking at plans for pranks, and he doesn’t feel like socialising.

So he just looks at the next plan.

 

  *       Turning the Kappa house upside down; nailing their furniture to the ceiling.



 

He ignores the feeling poking at his gut telling him that it’s a bad idea. He forgets about being the safety inspector for once.

He can’t stop thinking about what Debby said. Maybe he’d make it right. Maybe he’d fix things.

Would Josh even want to talk to him?

The number of voicemails on his phone tells Tyler yes.

Josh’s kind smile tells Tyler yes.

The heart wrenching, gut clenching, soul destroying emotion Tyler feels thinking about Josh tells him he _has_ to.

 

* * *

 

 

**[You have eight new messages. Here are your messages:]**

“Hey Tyler it’s Josh, haven’t seen you in a couple of days. Just a little concerned, text me back yeah? I miss you.”

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have seven new messages. Here is your next message:]**

“Ty? Hey, it’s me again. How’re you doing? You haven’t replied to my messages. Call me back yeah? I miss seeing your face.”

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have six new messages. Here is your next message:]**  

“Tyler, it’s me. I swung by your house today, but nobody answered the door. I really miss you. Please answer me. Tell me what’s going on.”

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have five new messages. Here is your next message:]**

“Tyler. What have I done? Please just tell me what’s wrong.” 

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have four new messages. Here is your next message:]**

“Tyler, it’s Debby. You know, Josh’s friend? Answer his calls please. He’s worried.” 

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have three new messages. Here is your next message:]**

“It’s me again. What did I do wrong?” 

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have two new messages. Here is your next message:]**

“Pick up the phone!”

 

**[BEEP]**

**[You have one new message. Here is your last message:]**

“I miss you.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is kind of a terrible chapter, i was half asleep writing most of it, and it's sort of a filler. Hope you enjoy anyway.
> 
> <3 xo


	10. Surrounding All My Surroundings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crashing realisations and long overdue apologies.

It takes roughly a day and a half after Debby’s confrontation (an incident which Mark had dubbed The D-Bomb) for Tyler to decide what he was going to do. For the first time in a couple of weeks he left the Zetas to their own devices, and while they plan their next great attack on the Kappas Tyler plans his own big move.

He’s never really been one for big gestures, but this time he knows he needs to do it. When he thinks about what he’s going to do sometimes a little nervous sweat breaks out on his palms and forehead, the butterflies are a wave of anxious violence in his stomach, and he gets a little freaked out. But it’s something he needs to do. This is not a choice; this is a necessity.

The Zetas buy screws, Tyler buys flowers, the Zetas draw an intricate diagram, and Tyler writes a song. The flowers are an adventure and a half, he turns up on the Delta’s doorstep scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as Jenna opens up the door. He doesn’t have to say anything, his face says it all, and she sweeps him into a bone-crushing hug.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Jenna mumbles into his shoulder. She doesn’t need to say it, but he appreciates it all the same. She’s his best friend, and he is so grateful to have her. He rubs his hand up and down her back comfortingly, holding her tight until they both need to breathe, and they break the hug with matching half-smiles.

“It’s okay,” Tyler says, and it is.

He tells her about his plan, and she claps her hands excitedly and drags him back to his car with a grin. They spend a while squinting at the map in confusion, yelling ridiculous directions at each other and fighting laughter as they bicker over where they’re meant to be going. Eventually they find what they’re looking for; a small market just outside of the city. Jenna takes his hand and pulls him through the crowd, chattering happily as they go, and a few times they get distracted by weird stalls with weird contents before realising they’re on a mission and they need to get on with it.

The market is bustling with people, excitement buzzes in the air and fills the sky. It takes twenty minutes of searching before Jenna let’s out a yelp of joy and points it out. An obnoxiously colourful stand towers ahead over them, bursting with bright blooming flowers and dainty bags of petals.  The stall is busy, surrounded by apologetic people looking to confess their love or rekindle some romance… maybe even to fix a relationship. 

Jenna is all elbows as they fight their way to the front. They spend almost an hour looking over flowers and their different meanings until Tyler gives up all hope.

“This is hopeless,” He voices aloud.

“Don’t be so negative,” Jenna scolds him, holding up a bunch of blindingly bright fuchsias. “Look, these match your nails!”

Tyler sighs and runs a hand through his hair, scanning the collection over again. “He might not even like flowers.”

“He bought you flowers. What would help is if you would recognise the type he bought you.”

“I’m trying,” Tyler whines. “I know what they look like, but I don’t know what they are.”

As if by command a chirpy looking old man appeared in front of the two of them. They both stepped back in surprise, Jenna almost dropping the bouquet she was holding. 

“Hello there,” The man greeted. “Can I help you?” 

“Oh,” Jenna says politely. “Is this your stall?”

“Yes ma’am,” The man says with a smile, he gestures to the stand behind him. “My pride and joy. What can I assist you with today?”

Jenna nudges Tyler hard in the ribs; He flinches and frowns at her as he rubs his side. 

She sighs. “We’re looking for these flowers… they’re like pink and white.”

“But not pink and white, pink and white,” Tyler interjects hurriedly.

The man stares at them.

“They were the same kind, but different colours,” Jenna explains, sounding very put upon. 

“They were frilly,” Tyler supplies helpfully. 

“Right…” The man says slowly. “Are you celebrating an anniversary, or are they just for decoration?” He looks between the two of them.

“Oh, they’re not for us!” Jenna giggles. “They’re for… um.”

“A… friend? Of mine,” Tyler bites his lip. 

“I see,” The man says knowingly, and then lowers his voice a little. “Apology flowers?” 

Tyler nods slowly.

“Ah,” The man nods again. Tyler stops himself from nodding back before the entire conversation could become a void of nodding heads. “It sounds like you’re describing carnations… but they may not be the perfect fit for an apology. Have you considered lilies?”

Tyler shakes his head. “They need to be the same.”

Jenna and the man look at him blankly.

“Expand?” Jenna asks.

“Um…” Tyler scratches his wrist nervously and looks at his feet. “On our first date he bought me pink and white flowers, I-I broke the vase in the kitchen and he helped me clear up the mess… and he didn’t… he didn’t walk away.”

But I did, Tyler thinks. 

“Oh,” Jenna says quietly. 

“I understand,” The man nods understandingly. “Wait here.”

He disappears into the crowd for a moment and returns minutes later holding a bouquet of flowers exactly matching Josh’s First Date Bunch. Tyler can’t help but smile. They’re perfect.

“Are these what you’re looking for?” The man asks. “Carnations; the white represent pure love and good luck, while the pink may symbolise undying love or a mother’s love. They’re known as the heavenly flower. Most people that know the meaning buy them for people they love. They’re also the state flower of Ohio.” 

For the first time in a while Tyler is sure of something. He wants those flowers, he wants to give those flowers to Josh; he’s sure about the flowers. He’s sure about Josh.

“They’re what I’m looking for,” Tyler says.

On their way back to the car they stop at a music stand to buy a pair of drumsticks. Tyler pretends not to notice Jenna laughing at how cheesy it is when he gets the date of his first date with Josh engraved on them. He ties them to the flowers with a white ribbon, like his very own love note.

It is cheesy, he knows. But he’s also hoping it will work.

 

* * *

 

**Operation Screwfix is supposed to go something like this:**

 

 **Stage 1:** The Zetas wait for the Kappas to leave “the mothership” as Pete keeps calling it. (“It’s a frat house, Pete.” “Shut up, Mark!”)

 **Stage 2:** They then proceed to enter the house one by one through the windows. (They know the living room window has a faulty lock so it shouldn’t be hard to pick.)

 **Stage 3:** They take the furniture in the living room and kitchen and empty anything hollow of its contents. They then work together using an intricate system of step ladders and power tools to screw them into the ceiling.

 **Stage 4:** They sit back and enjoy the Kappa’s confusion through a video feed that Mark – the Zeta’s resident camera whiz – will set up in the living room. Again.

In the lonely quiet of the Kappa house a screw wobbles uncertainly.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Jenna asks as Tyler stops the car. He shakes his head, leaning over to the backseat and grabbing the bouquet.

“I’ve got this,” He says confidently, fumbling with the lock for a second before tumbling out of the door.

He heads up the steps, breathing evenly, and has to take a moment to shake himself into a little more of a psyched mood. As his fist hits the door it opens slightly, he frowns and pushes it a little more; it’s unlocked. He pushes it open, and goes to call out for someone until he hears voices. Arguing voices. Arguing voices that sound a lot like his friends.

He enters slowly, careful to be quiet and minding the sanctity of his flowers. 

Peering around the side of the living room Tyler comes face to face with a situation he wants no part of. It appears that the Zetas have been caught in the middle of performing their most recent pranks on the Kappas. The window on the other side of the room is wide open and there’s a group of Zetas waving around power tools as they argue with the Kappas who have discovered. One of those Kappas happens to be just the man Tyler is looking for.

Josh looks angry. That’s not going to help Tyler’s plan at all.

“It’s childish!” One of the Kappas is saying, annoyance filling his tone.

“Childish? You guys started this, we’re just returning the favour!” Pete is saying heatedly.

“We never did something this dangerous!” Josh points out loudly. Josh looks (for lack of a better word) awful. His hair is a faded mess, his stubble has grown out in a way that suggests he hasn’t shaved in a few days, and he’s dressed in a shirt with holes decorating the hem. Tyler is not secretly pleased. He’s not.

“We didn’t damage your stuff!” Another boy chimes in.

“Oh what, you mean like destroying our house?” Mark says from behind Pete.

Noise breaks out as the boys begin to argue over each other, sly comments and snide remarks being hurled from person to person, until a long creak interrupts them. The boys freeze, heads whipping around in confusion, quiet questions escaping lips.

Tyler looks up to the ceiling. The Zetas have done it, above the mess of step ladders and frat boys on the floor is the rest of the living room. The couch, the shelves, the coffee table… they’ve all been emptied and screwed to the ceiling in exactly the same places as usually only upside down. He feels a strange sense of pride over the fact they actually managed it, but his heart also sinks as another creak echoes from above them.

 _They haven’t checked the screws_ , Tyler thinks. _They haven’t safety checked them or put any safety precautions up._

His eyes flicker down to where Josh is stood in the centre of the room. Another low moan escapes from the ceiling and the guys started shuffling towards the walls cautiously. Tyler sees it coming before it happens, he sees the right side of the coffee table leaning downwards slightly, it shakes a little. Tyler watches Josh’s head snap up to look too, to look at the table hanging directly above him, and he sees the moment of realisation flicker through Josh. The table comes down.

Before Tyler has time to process exactly what he’s doing he is launching himself through the door and across the room. The sound of the crash fills his ears, exploding around him with shattering glass and splintering wood, a sharp pain shoots through Tyler’s leg and he cries out - the noise goes unheard in the chaos of yelling frat brothers and breaking wood.

It takes a moment for everything to quiet other than the distant ringing in Tyler’s ears. He’s lying face down on the floor, ankle throbbing and head pounding, curled around something solid and warm. Josh. Josh groans, shifting beneath Tyler and lifting his head slowly from where he’s protected his face with his arms, he looks at Tyler. Tyler doesn’t get time to discern Josh’s face or the what the voices around him are saying before everything goes black.

* * *

Tyler wakes up to a lot of racket and familiar faces. A mixture of Kappa and Zeta brothers are stood above him babbling worriedly, shaking him.

“I-,” He coughs in the general direction of Pete. “I warned you about safety.”

It’s not only Pete that let’s out a slightly hysterical laugh, and he feels himself pulled close to a chest only seconds later. He’d know the smell of Josh anywhere.

* * *

Three hours later Tyler sits with Josh in the waiting room of the ER with his newly acquired broken ankle ready to be fixed. Josh entwines their fingers and clutches his hand tightly, while Tyler uses his free hand to hold ice to his injury.

In the seat next to Josh is a bedraggled bundle of bright pink and white carnations tied to a pair of drumsticks engraved with the date of their first date. When one of the guys at the house had plucked them out of the wreckage after they’d gotten Tyler up and dusted off Tyler hadn’t had time to sprout his long overdue apology to Josh before Josh had his arms around his shoulders and his mouth slotted against Tyler’s. He’d still apologised during the drive to the hospital though, and he’d continued to do so until they reached the hospital and Tyler received a text from Jenna.

**[Jenna; Stop apologising. You saved his life, he knows you care.]**

Josh must’ve messaged her to let her know what happened.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Josh tells Tyler. Tyler waves it off easily.

“I would’ve done the same… I did do the same, it’s me who should be—”

“If you apologise again I swear to God, Tyler.”

“Sorry.”

Josh sighs with a smile and runs his thumb along the ridge of Tyler’s wrist. He opens his mouth, looking as if he’s about to say something, but he’s interrupted by his phone ringing out shrilly in the bustling emergency room.

“Hello?” Josh answers it.

Tyler goes back to concentrating on the pain in his ankle while Josh talks.

When Josh hangs up he turns to Tyler.

“I’m so sorry.”

“What?”

“That was Patrick, he said that the house trashing culprits owned up. It was Paul and his friends, they’re getting kicked out, I’m sorry… you were right,” Josh’s eyes are so sincere Tyler has no doubt in the world that he is telling the truth.

“It’s okay,” He pecks his boyfriend on the lips. It is okay.

It is totally and 100% okay.

* * *

The next morning Tyler wakes up next to Josh, his boyfriend’s warm breath tickling his neck, and breathes a sigh of relief that it’s all over. With Josh’s help he gets down the stairs and they head into the kitchen where they see Pete and Patrick leaned up against the counter making out like it’s the end of the world.

They laugh and decide to leave them to it.

Frank comes over to the Zeta house to help continue the repairs to the house, and he apologises to Josh for his suspicions and Josh waves it off with a laugh and thanks Frank for caring about Tyler so much. Tyler notices the large hickey on Frank’s neck and points it out. His roommate laughs sheepishly and rubs at it. He’s finally got his shit together.

The Zetas buy the Kappa boys a new coffee table and fill in the holes drilled into the ceiling and the Kappa boys take part in the renovation of the Zeta house. Pete and Patrick are seen to be all over each other whenever they get the chance.

**Tyler looks around and he sees love. He’s surrounded by it, and as he takes in the bright splash of colour that is his boyfriend - Joshua Dun - he doesn’t have to tell himself he’s happy. He just knows.**

 


	11. Epilogue: I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I Love You.

**Epilogue**

The first night Tyler gets the cast off his ankle he and Josh fall into bed tearing at each other’s clothes, laughing as Josh hops around trying to remove his jeans, and mouthing at one another’s skin.

They’re woken the next morning by the door bursting open, it’s Pete with a hand over his eyes as he declares loudly “Please don’t be naked!” and throws something at Tyler’s face.

It’s a bright white new shirt, exactly the same as the kind Tyler’s mother bought him, and it has zero grass stains. Tyler and Josh collapse about laughing after Pete closes the door behind him, and it takes them a few minutes to calm down and breathe.

“I love you,” Josh sighs, falling back against the pillows. Tyler’s heart skips a beat, and a warm glow spreads through his chest. He snuggles into his boyfriend’s side contently.

“I love you too. So much.”

**  
  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it, this last one is for smugdun on twitter for motivating me and being so supportive.
> 
> Thank you guys for coming on this journey with me, it means a lot.
> 
> <3 xo


End file.
